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Pioneering in Cuba 

A NARRATIVE OF THE SETTLEMENT OF 
LA GLORIA, THE FIRST AMERICAN 
COLONY IN CUBA, AND THE EARLY 
EXPERIENCES OF THE PIONEERS 



BY 

JAMES M. ADAMS 

ONE OF THE ORIGINAL COLONISTS 



Illustrated 



CONCORD, N. H.: 

Gbe TRumforO press 
1 90 1 



Copyright, 1901, by 
JAMES M. ADAMS 

/Geo 



/J ;/- 253<? 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 









PAGE. 


James M. Adams .... Frontispiece. 


Map of Cuba . 


16 


City of Nuevitas, Cuba 






20 


Gen. Paul Van der Voort . 






26 


An Involuntary Bath 






42 


Port La Gloria 






46 


Author on Road to La Gloria . 






48 


Col. Thomas H. Maginniss 






52 


"The Hotel" 






64 


The Spring .... 






68 


Robert C. Beausejour 






82 


La Gloria, Cuba, Looking North 






88 


First House in La Gloria . 






97 


Frank J. O'Reilly . 






no 


First Women Colonists of La Gloria 






122 


Dr. William P. Peirce 






126 


Gen. Van der Voort's Cuban House 






134 


La Gloria, Cuba, Looking South 






150 


Group of Colonists . 






158 


The Survey Corps . 






168 


Interior Gen. Van der Voort's House 




182 


Agramonte Plaza, Puerto Principe, Cuba 




200 


Dr. Peirce's Pineapple Patch 




208 


Scene on Laguna Grande . 






214 




4fc! 



TO 

My Fellow Colonists 

WHOSE COURAGE, CHEERFULNESS, AND KINDLY SPIRIT WON MY 
ADMIRATION AND AFFECTION 

THIS BOOK IS 
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 



PREFACE. 



My excuse for writing and publishing this book 
is a threefold one. For some time I have strongly 
felt that the true story of the La Gloria colony 
should be told, without bias and with an accurate, 
first-hand knowledge of all the facts. My close 
relations with the colony and the colonists, and an 
actual personal residence in La Gloria for nearly 
half a year, have made me entirely familiar with 
the conditions there, and I have endeavored to pre- 
sent them to the reader clearly, correctly, and hon- 
estly. Secondly, I have been imbued with the be- 
lief that many of the daily happenings in the colony, 
particularly those of the earlier months, are of suffi- 
cient general interest to justify their narration ; and 
if I am wrong in this, I am quite sure that these 
incidents, anecdotes, and recollections will find an 
attentive audience among the colonists and their 
friends. It is one of the author's chief regrets that 
the size and scope of this book does not admit of 
the mention by name of all of the colonists who were 
prominent and active in the life of the colony. 
Thirdly, while in La Gloria, in his capacity as a 
member of the Pioneer Association, the author had 



Preface. 



the honor to be the chairman of the committee on 
History of the Colony. This committee was not 
officially or outwardly active, but in a quiet way its 
members stored up history as fast as it was made. 
The author does not dignify the present work by 
the name of history, but prefers to call it a narra- 
tive of the first year of the colony. He believes, 
however, that it contains many facts and incidents 
which will be found useful material to draw upon 
when in later years a complete history of the first 
American colony in Cuba may be written. 

I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. 
V. K. Van De Venter, a professional photographer 
of Dundee, Michigan, for some of the best pictures 
in the book. The other photographs were taken, 
and in several cases kindly furnished gratuitously, 
by Robin H. Ford, John H. Rising, L. E. Mayo, 
and W. G. Spiker. I am also under obligation to 
Mr. Spiker for the loan of the cut of the lake on 
the Laguna Grande tract, and to Dr. W. P. Peirce 
for the use of the cut of his pineapple garden in La 
Gloria. All of the pictures in the book are scenes 
in the province of Puerto Principe, and with two or 
three exceptions, in or around La Gloria. 

J. M. A. 

North IVeare, JV. H., December, igoo. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Arrival qf the Colonists in Nuevitas Harbor. 

PAGE. 

A New Sight for Old Nuevitas — The Yarmouth drops 
Anchor in the Harbor — The Vanguard of the 
First American Colony Planted in Cuba — The 
Beautiful Cuban Coast — Picturesque Appearance 
of Nuevitas — " Distance Lends Enchantment to 
the View" — Character of the Colonists — Gen. 
Paul Van der Voort — Nearly all the States Rep- 
resented — " The Only Canuck on Board" — The 
Voyage from New York 17 

CHAPTER II. 
The Journey to Port La Gloria. 

An Irritating Delay — Ashore at Nuevitas — Midnight 
Row at the Pier — Convivial Colonists Clash 
With Cubans — Ex-Soldier Takes an Involuntary 
Bath — The Cuban Police— Hon. Peter E. Park 
— The Start for La Gloria — Some Intending 
Colonists Back Out — The Man With the Long, 
Red Face — The Only Woman — The Fleet An- 
chors — ''Tomorrow, Four O'clock, Wind Right, 
Go ! " — An Uncomfortable Night — Cuban Cap- 
tain Falls Overboard — Port La Gloria Sighted 32 



Contents. 



CHAPTER III. 
A Tough Tramp^to La Gloria City. 

Arrival at the Port — A Discouraging Scene — Mud, 
Water, and Sand Flies — The Memorable Walk 
to La Gloria " City' 1 — An Awful Road — Battle 
With Water, Mud, Stumps, Roots, Logs, Briers 
and Branches — Lawyer Park Leads the Strange 
Procession — La Gloria at Last — The Royal 
Palm — Women in Masculine Garb — Col. Thos. 
H. Maginniss — First Night in La Gloria — The 
Survey Corps — Chief Engineer Kelly — Experi- 
ences of the Lowells and Spikers .... 44 

CHAPTER IV. 
First Days in the New Colony. 

Isolation of La Gloria — The Camp at Night — Strange 
Sounds in the Forest — The Colonists Happy — 
Their Excellent Health — Remarkable Cures Ef- 
fected by the Climate — The Agreeable Temper- 
ature — Prolonged Rainy Season — The " Hotel" 
— The Log Foundation — A Favorite Joke — The 
Company's Spring — Small Variety of Food — 
My First Supper in La Gloria — Eating Flamin- 
go and Aged Goat — A Commissary With Noth- 
ing to Sell — A Fluctuating Population . . .59 

CHAPTER V. 
The Allotment of the Land. 

The Character of the Contracts — The Question of 
Subdivision — Some of the Difficulties — Matter 
Placed in the Hands of a Committee of the Col- 



Contents. 



onists — Fair and Feasible Plan Adopted — Gen. 
Van der Voorfs Arrival in La Gloria — His Boat 
Nearly Wrecked — Delay in Getting Baggage — 
Colonists Get Their Land Promptly — The 
Town as Laid Out — Site Well Chosen — Woods 
Full of Colonists Hunting for Their Plantations 
— Different Kinds of Soil 73 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Sugar Riot. 

Population of Colony Slowly Increases — Arrival of 
Second Yarmouth — Sensational and Ridiculous 
Reports — Consternation in Asbury Park — 
Laughing Over Newspaper Stories — Excitement 
Over Sugar — Mass Meeting to Air the Griev- 
ance — An Unexpected Turn of Affairs — Cable 
From New York Brings Good News — Van der 
Voort Elected President of the Company — Sugar 
Orators Remain Silent — A Noisy Celebration 86 

CHAPTER VII. 
Adventures and Misadventures. 

The Women in the Camp — Mrs. Moller — Her Cos- 
tume and Extraordinary Adventures — How She 
Entered La Gloria — Roosts in a Tree all Night 
— Builds the First House in La Gloria — Her 
Famous Cow and Calf — Wonderful Bloomers — 
Ubiquitous Mrs. Horn — Weighed 250, but 
Waded Into La Gloria— Not "Rattled" by a 
Brook Running Through Her Tent — A Pig 
Hunt and Its Results — Surveyors Lost in the 
Woods 94 



io Contents. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Cubans. 

Good People to " Get Along With "—Their Kind- 
ness and Courtesy — Harmony and Good Feel- 
ing Between the Colonists and Cubans — Their 
Primitive Style of Living — The Red Soil and Its 
Stains — Rural Homes — Prevalence of Children, 
Chickens, and Dogs — Little Girl Dresses for 
Company With Only a Slipper — Food and Drink 
of the Cubans — Few Amusements — An Indiffer- 
ent People — The Country Districts of the Prov- 
ince of Puerto Principe 104 

CHAPTER IX. 

Steps of Progress. 

Clearing and Planting — The Post-office — Col. John 
F. Early— The "Old Senor"— La Gloria Police 
Force — Chief Matthews 1 Nightly Trip " Down 
the Line 11 — No Liquor Sold, and Practically no 
Crime Committed — Watchman Eugene Kezar — 
Religious Services and Ministers — La Gloria 
Pioneer Association — Dr. W. P. Peirce — Mr. 
D. E. Lowell — Mr. R. G. Barner — Important 
Work of the Association 118 

CHAPTER X. 
Events Important and Otherwise. 

Worth of the Colonists — Gen. Van der Voort's New 
Cuban House — The " Lookout Tree" — Its Part 
in the Cuban Wars — The General's Garden — 
Marvelously Rapid Growth of Plants — First 



Contents. 1 1 



Birth in La Gloria — Olaf El Gloria Olson — Given 
a Town Lot— Temperature Figures — Perfection 
of Climate — The Maginniss Corduroy Road — 
First Well Dug— Architect M. A. C. Neff . . 133 

CHAPTER XI. 
Self-Reliance of the Colonists. 

The Man With the Hoe — " Grandpa " Withee Able 
to Take Care of Himself — Not Dead, but Very 
Much Alive — A Pugnacious Old Man — Mr. 
Withee Shoots Chickens and Defies the Authori- 
ties — Big Jack McCauley and His " Influence" — 
"Albany" and the Mosquitoes — Arrival of 
Third Yarmouth — Arnold Mollenhauer — John 
A. Connell — S. W. Storm — The First School 
and Its Teacher 143 

CHAPTER XII. 
The First Holiday in La Gloria. 

Craving for Athletic Sports — Half Holiday Formally 
Proclaimed — A Beautiful Day — The Colonists 
Photographed — Lieut. Evans and His Soldiers 
of the Eighth U. S. Cavalry — Successful Sports 
— Baseball Game — An Event not Down on the 
Program — Excited Colonists — Lawyer C. Hugo 
Drake of Puerto Principe — His Scheme — Or- 
dered Out of Camp — A Night in the Woods — 
Lieutenant Cienfuente 155 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Industry of the Colonists. 

Pink Orchids on the Trees — Vegetables Raised and 
Fruit Trees Set Out — The Various Employ- 



12 Contents. 



men ts — Working on the Survey Corps — Chief 
Kelly's Facetious Formula— An Official Kicker 
— B. F. Seibert — Improvements at the Port — 
Fish, Alligators, and Flamingo— J. L. Ratekin 
—First Banquet in La Gloria — Departure of 
Maginniss Party — First Death in the Colony — 
Only One Death in Six Months — Lowell's Cor- 
duroy Road and Kelly's Permanent Highway . 166 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The First Ball in La Gloria. 

A Semi-Anniversary — Town Lots and Plantations 
Allotted in First Six Months — A Grand Ball — 
French Dancing Master in Charge — Dan Good- 
man's Pennsylvania Modesty — Organizing an 
Orchestra at Short Notice — The Ballroom — 
Rev. Dr. Gill Lends His Tent Floor— Elaborate 
Decorations — A Transformation Scene — Some 
Taking Specialties — A Fine Supper — Music in 
Camp — An Aggravating Cornet Player — Singers 
in the Colony . . -177 

CHAPTER XV. 
A Walking Trip to Puerto Principe. 

Five Good Walkers — A Halt at Mercedes — Sparsely 
Settled Country — Cuban Trails — A Night in 
the Woods — A Cripple From Sore Feet — A 
Pretty Country Place — The Cubitas Mountains 
— Hunting for the Late Cuban Capital — A 
Broad and Beautiful View — Seventeen Miles 
Without a House — Night on the Plain — The 
City of Puerto Principe — Politeness of Its Peo- 



Contents. 



13 



pie — The Journey Home — Sanchez 1 Sugar Plan- 
tation — Lost in the Forest — La Gloria Once 
More 186 

CHAPTER XVI. 
In and Around La Gloria. 

Horses That May Have Committed Suicide — Colonel 
Maginniss "A Master Hand in Sickness " — Sud- 
den and Surprising Rise of Water — A Deluge 
of Frogs — A Greedy Snake — Catching Fish in 
Central Avenue — D. Sieferfs Industry — Max 
Neuber — Mountain View — A Facetious Sign- 
board — The Sangjai — An Aggravating and 
Uncertain Channel 



203. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
The Colony at the End of the First Year. 

The Saw Mill — The Pole Tramway to the Bay — A 
Tragedy in the Colony — Death of Mr. Bosworth 
— The Summer Season — The Country Around 
La Gloria — The Cuban Colonization Company — 
Guanaja — The Rural Guard — Organizations in 
La Gloria — The March of Improvements — 
Construction of Wooden Buildings — Colonists 
Delighted With Their New Home in the Tropics 2, 



PIONEERING IN CUBA 



CHAPTER I. 



Arrival of the Colonists in Nuevitas 
Harbor. 

Just after noon on January 4, 1900, the 
ancient city of Nuevitas, Cuba, lazily basking 
in the midday sunshine, witnessed a sight 
which had not been paralleled in the four 
hundred years of its existence. A steamer 
was dropping anchor in the placid water of 
the harbor a mile off shore, and her decks 
were thronged with a crowd of more than two 
hundred eager and active Americans. They 
wore no uniforms, nor did they carry either 
guns or swords ; and yet they had come on 
an errand of conquest. They had fared forth 
from their native land to attack the formidable 
forests and to subdue the untamed soil of the 
province of Puerto Principe — a task which 
required scarcely less courage and resolution 
than a feat of arms might have demanded in 
that locality two years before. Well aware 



1 8 Pioneering in Cuba. 



that there was a hard fight before them, they 
were yet sanguine of success and eager to 
begin active operations. It was the vanguard 
of the first American colony planted in Cuba. 
The vessel that lay at anchor in the beau- 
tiful land-locked harbor of Nuevitas was the 
screw steamer Yarmouth , a steel ship which, 
if not as fast and elegant as the ocean grey- 
hounds that cross the Atlantic, was large and 
fine enough to have easily commanded the 
unbounded admiration and amazement of 
Christopher Columbus had he beheld her 
when he landed from the Santa Maria on the 
coast of Cuba near this point more than four 
centuries ago. Great changes have been 
wrought since the days of Columbus in the 
manner of craft that sail the seas, but less 
progress has been made by the city of Nue- 
vitas in those four hundred long years. The 
Yarmouth, substantial if not handsome, and 
safe if not swift, had brought the colonists to 
this port without mishap, thus redeeming one 
of the many promises of the Cuban Land and 
Steamship Company. Since early morning 
the vessel had been slowly steaming along 
the palm-fringed coast of the "Pearl of the 
Antilles," daybreak having revealed the fact 
that the boat was too far to the eastward, and 



The Arrival at Nuevitas. 



late in the forenoon we entered the picturesque 
bay of Nuevitas, took on a swarthy Cuban 
pilot, and, gliding quietly past straggling 
palm-thatched native shacks and tiny green- 
clad isles, came to anchor in plain view of 
the city that Velasquez founded in 15 14. We 
had passed two or three small circular forts, 
any one of which would have been demol- 
ished by a single well-directed shot from a 
thirteen-inch gun. These defenses were 
unoccupied, and there was naught else to 
threaten the established peace. 

The day was beautiful, freshened by a soft 
and balmy breeze, with the delightful temper- 
ature of 75 degrees. Far back in the interior, 
through the wonderfully transparent Cuban 
atmosphere, one could see the light blue peaks 
of lofty mountains, standing singly instead of 
in groups, as if each were the monarch of a 
small principality. Their outlines, as seen at 
this distance, were graceful and symmetrical, 
rather than rugged and overpowering like 
some of their brother chieftains of the North. 
Near at hand the listless city of Nuevitas 
extended from the water's edge backward up 
the hillside of a long, green ridge, the low, 
red-tiled houses clinging to what seemed 
precarious positions along the rough, water- 




U IS 



The Arrival at Nuevitas. 21 

worn streets that gashed the side of the 
hill. To the right a green-covered promon- 
tory projected far into the bay, dotted with 
occasional native shacks and planted in part 
with sisal hemp. The colonists on shipboard, 
ignorant of the appearance of this tropical 
product, at first took the hemp for pineapple 
plants, but soon learned their mistake from 
one who had been in the tropics before. 
Viewed from the harbor, Nuevitas looks 
pretty and picturesque, but once on shore the 
illusion vanishes. Mud meets you at the 
threshold and sticks to you like a brother. 
The streets, for the most part, are nothing 
more than rain-furrowed lanes, filled with 
large, projecting stones and gullies of no little 
depth. Sticky, yellow mud is everywhere, 
and once acquired is as hard to get rid of as 
the rheumatism. The houses, in general, are 
little better than hovels, and the gardens 
around them are neglected and forlorn. 
When a spot more attractive than the others 
is found, Nature is entitled to all the credit. 
The shops are poor and mean, and not over 
well supplied with merchandise. The natives, 
while kindly disposed toward the " America- 
nos, " are, for the most part, unattractive in 
dress and person. The few public buildings 



22 Pioneering in Cuba. 

are ugly and there is not a pleasant' street in 
the town. And yet when seen from the har- 
bor the city looks pretty, mainly on account 
of its red-tiled houses, grassy hillside slopes, 
and waving cocoanut palms. The author of 
the ancient saying that " distance lends en- 
chantment to the view," might well have 
gathered his inspiration at Nue vitas. 

If the inhabitants of Nuevitas have the 
quality of curiosity, they clearly did not have 
it with them at the time of our arrival. Al- 
though it is said on good authority, that the 
city had never before had more than twelve 
or fifteen visitors at one time, save soldiers or 
sailors, the natives betrayed no excitement 
and little interest in the advent of two hun- 
dred American civilians. With the exception 
of a handful of boatmen and a few fruit ven- 
ders, not a person came to the piers to gaze 
at the new arrivals, and in the town the peo- 
ple scarcely gave themselves the trouble to 
look out of their open dwellings and shops at 
the colonists. This may have been inherent 
courtesy — for the Cuban is nothing if not 
courteous — but to us it seemed more like 
indifference. The Cubans are certainly an 
indifferent people, and at this port they ap- 
peared to have no object or interest in life. 



The Arrival at Nuevitas. 23 

They dwelt in drowsy content, smoking their 
cigarettes, and doing their little buying and 
selling in a leisurely and heedless manner. 
The most of them pick up a precarious living 
with but little labor. These easy-going habits 
impress the close observer as being more the 
result of indifference than downright indo- 
lence, for when the occasion demands it the 
Cuban often exhibits surprising activity and 
industry. He does not, however, work for 
the fun of it, and it never occurs to him that it 
is necessary to lay up anything for the pro- 
verbial "rainy day." Accustomed to the 
fairest skies in the world, he never anticipates 
cloudy weather. 

It is quite possible that if we had been 
arrayed in brilliant uniforms, resplendent of 
gold lace, brass buttons, and all the accom- 
panying trappings, we should have aroused 
more interest, for the Cuban loves color, 
pageant, and martial show, but as a matter 
of fact, nothing could have been plainer and 
uglier than the dress of most of the colonists. 
To the superficial observer, there was noth- 
ing about the invaders to hold attention, but 
to me, who had closely studied my compan- 
ions and fellow-colonists for nearly a week, 
they were full of interest and inspiration. 



24 Pioneering in Cuba. 

They were, to be sure, a motley crowd, rep- 
resenting man}' states and territories, and 
several grades of social standing, but they 
were obviously courageous, enterprising, and 
of good character. In point of intelligence 
and manifest honesty and energy they aver- 
aged high — much higher than one would 
expect of the pioneers in a project of this sort. 
They were not reckless and unscrupulous 
adventurers, nor yet rolling stones who 
sought an indolent life of ease, but serious- 
minded and industrious home-seekers. They 
had counted the cost, and resolved to go 
forward and achieve success, expecting 
obstacles, but not anticipating defeat. A 
thoughtful person could not fail to be im- 
pressed by the serious and resolute manner 
in which these voyagers entered upon the 
work of establishing a new home for them- 
selves in a tropical country. Since the days 
when the Pilgrim Fathers landed upon the 
bleak shores of New England, I doubt if a 
better aggregation of men had entered upon 
an enterprise of this character. 

The colonists sailed from New York on the 
Yarmouth on Saturday, December 30, 1899, 
a stinging cold day. It was the first excur- 
sion run by the Cuban Land and Steamship 



The Arrival at Nuevitas. 25 

Company, whose offices at 32 Broadway had 
for several days been crowded with men from 
all parts of the country eager to form a part 
of the first expedition to establish an Ameri- 
can colony at La Gloria, on the north coast 
of Cuba, about forty miles west of Nuevitas. 
Every passenger on board the Yarmouth was 
supposed to have purchased or contracted for 
land at La Gloria, and practically all had 
done so. The steamer was commanded by 
Capt. E. O. Smith, a popular and efficient 
officer, and carried besides her complement 
of crew and waiters, two hundred and eleven 
passengers, all men with one exception, Mrs. 
Crandall, the wife of an employe of the com- 
pany. The colonists represented all sections 
of the country, from Maine to California, 
from Minnesota to Florida. No less than 
thirty states sent their delegations, two terri- 
tories, Canada, Prince Edward's Island, and 
British Columbia. All came to New York 
to make up this memorable excursion. The 
genial and stalwart Gen. Paul Van der Voort 
of Nebraska, who was commander-in-chief 
of the national G. A. R. in i882-'83, had 
led on a party of over twenty from the West, 
several of them his own neighbors in Omaha. 
The others were from different parts of 




Gen. Paul Van der Voort. 



The Arrival at Nuevitas. 27 

Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa. General Van 
der Voort was the assistant manager of the 
company, and a little later became its presi- 
dent. He went to Cuba in the double capac- 
ity of an officer of the company, to take 
charge of its business there, and a colonist 
to make La Gloria his permanent residence. 
Honest, affable, and humorous, a magnetic 
and convincing speaker, with a sunny nature 
singularly free from affectation and ardently 
loyal to his friends, General Van der Voort 
was a natural leader of men, well fitted to 
head a colonizing expedition. One of his 
sons had been in La Gloria for some time 
working as a surveyor in the employ of the 
company. 

General Van der Voort's party, however, 
formed but a small fraction of the Western 
representation. Twelve men came from 
Illinois, six from Michigan, five from Minne- 
sota, four from Wisconsin, four from Indi- 
ana, four from Oklahoma — men who were 
" boomers " in the rush for land in that terri- 
tory — two from Missouri, two from Wash- 
ington state, one from Wyoming, one from 
South Dakota, and one from California. 
Ohio men, usually so much in evidence, were 
hard to find, only one man on board ac- 



28 Pioneering in Cuba. 

knowledging that he hailed from that state. 
The South was not so largely represented as 
the West, but there were two men from 
Maryland, two from Virginia, two from 
Georgia, one from Florida, one from West 
Virginia, and one from Washington, D. C. 
New York state led the entire list with fifty- 
one. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts came 
next with twenty-one each. From New 
Jersey there were fifteen. Among the New 
England states, New Hampshire and Con- 
necticut followed Massachusetts, with five 
each. Rhode Island contributed four, Maine 
two, and Vermont two. Two of the colonists 
hailed from British Columbia, one from 
Prince Edward's Island, and one from 
Toronto, Canada. The latter, a tall, good- 
looking Englishman by the name of Ruther- 
ford, cheerfully announced himself as "the 
only Canuck on board." Those who were 
fortunate enough to become intimately ac- 
quainted with this clear-headed and whole- 
hearted gentleman were easily convinced that 
while he might call himself a "Canuck" 
and become a Cuban by emigration, he 
would remain to the end of his days an 
Englishman, and a very good specimen of 
his race. If Rutherford had not taken part 



The Arrival at Nuevitas. 29 

in the "sugar riot" — but that's "another 
story." 

The colonists represented even more occu- 
pations than states. There were four physi- 
cians, one clergyman, one lawyer, one editor, 
one patent office employe, small merchants, 
clerks, bookkeepers, locomotive engineers, 
carpenters, and other skilled mechanics, 
besides many farmers. There were also a 
number of specialists. The embryo colony 
included several veterans of the Spanish war, 
some of whom had been in Cuba before. 
G. A. R. buttons were surprisingly numer- 
ous. The men, generally speaking, ap- 
peared to be eminently practical and thor- 
oughly wide awake. They looked able to 
take hold of a business enterprise and push 
it through to success, regardless of obstacles. 
Several of the colonists showed their thrift by 
taking poultry with them, while an old gen- 
tleman from Minnesota had brought along 
two colonies of Italian honey bees. Another 
old man explained his presence by jocularly 
declaring that he was going down to Cuba to 
search for the footprints of Columbus. Ac- 
cents representing all sections of the country 
were harmoniously and curiously mingled, 
and the spirit of fraternity was marked. The 



30 Pioneering in Cuba. 

one colored man in the party, an intelligent 
representative of his race, had as good stand- 
ing as anybody. 

The voyage down was uneventful. It 
occupied four days and a half, and for thirty- 
six hours, in the neighborhood of Cape Hat- 
teras, very rough water was encountered. 
But few on board had ever known such a sea, 
and sickness was universal. The discomfort 
was great, partly owing to the crowded con- 
dition of the boat. Many a hardy colonist 
sighed for his Western ranch or his comforta- 
ble house in the East. The superior attrac- 
tions of Cuba were forgotten for the moment, 
and there was intense longing for the land 
that had been left behind. It is a fact hard 
to believe that several on board had never 
before seen the ocean, to say nothing of sail- 
ing upon its turbulent bosom. With the 
return of a smooth sea a marvelous change 
came over the voyagers, and all began to 
look eagerly forward to a sight of the famed 
"Pearl of the Antilles." We were now sail- 
ing a calm tropical sea, with the fairest of 
skies above us and a mild and genial tem- 
perature that was a great delight after the 
severe cold of the Northern winter. The 
salubrious weather continued through the 



The Arrival at Nuevitas, 



3i 



remaining forty-eight hours of the voyage, 
and the colonists resumed their interrupted 
intercourse, having but a single subject in 
their eager discussions — always the prospects 
of the colony or something bearing on their 
pioneer enterprise. The topic was far from 
being talked out when we glided into the 
tranquil harbor of Nuevitas. 




CHAPTER II. 

The Journey to Port La Gloria. 

The newly arrived colonists found the 
Spanish word "manana" still in high favor 
at Nuevitas, though it was difficult to fix the 
responsibility for the irritating delays. The 
Cubans and the officers of the company alike 
came in for a good deal of straight-from-the- 
shoulder Yankee criticism. Some of this 
was deserved, but not all. The company's 
officers had been handicapped in many ways, 
and for this and perhaps other reasons, had 
not pushed things along as rapidly and suc- 
cessfully as the colonists had been led to 
expect. It was learned that the town of La 
Gloria was as yet only a town in name, the 
foundation of its first building, the hotel, hav- 
ing just been laid. The lumber for. the struc- 
ture lay on the docks at Nuevitas. The com- 
pany's portable sawmill machinery was rust- 
ing in the open air at the same place. If the 
colonists marveled at this, their wonder dis- 
appeared when, a little later, they tramped 
and waded the four miles of so-called " road" 



Tie Journey to Port La Gloria. 33 

that lay between Port La Gloria and La 
Gloria " city." Nothing daunted by these 
discouraging signs and the many unfavorable 
reports, the most of the colonists determined 
to push ahead. 

Arriving at Nuevitas Thursday noon, Jan- 
uary 4, the passengers of the Yarmouth were 1 
not allowed to leave the vessel that day or 
evening. Many were desirous of exploring 
the ancient city of Nuevitas, but the most fre- 
quent and anxious inquiry was, " When shall 
we be taken to La Gloria?" It was a hard 
question to answer, and no one in authority 
attempted to do so. There were several 
causes contributing to the delay, one of which 
was the customs inspection and another the 
question of transportation. Communication 
between Nuevitas and La Gloria was neither 
easy nor regular. The overland route was 
the nearest, about forty miles, but could only 
be utilized by a person on foot or horseback. 
At the time of our arrival this way was 
entirely impracticable by any mode of travel- 
The inside or shallow water route was about 
forty-eight miles long, and the outside or 
deep water course, sixty miles. The officers- 
of the company decided upon the latter as the 
most feasible, and set out to procure lighters 
3 



34 Pioneering in Cuba. 

to convey the colonists and their baggage. 
This was no easy matter, as the business had 
to be done with Cubans, and Cubans are 
never in any hurry about coming to terms. 

Friday morning the passengers of the Yar- 
mouth were permitted to go ashore and wake 
up the inhabitants of the sleepy city, each 
person paying some thrifty Cuban twenty-five 
•cents for transportation thither in a sailboat. 
The Cuban boatmen coined money during 
our three days' stay in Nue vitas harbor. So 
also did the fruit venders, who came out to 
the steamer in small boats and sold us pine- 
apples, tiny fig bananas, and green oranges 
at exorbitant prices. The fruit looked infe- 
rior, but the flavor was good. Most of it 
grew without care, and in a semi-wild condi- 
tion. The colonists were eager to sample 
any fruit of the country, as most of them 
were intending to make fruit growing their 
business. The "Americanos" succeeded in 
waking up Nuevitas in some degree, and' at 
night a few of them set out to "paint the town 
red." Only a few, however ; the great major- 
ity behaved remarkably well. The day was 
spent in quietly inspecting the city and its 
surroundings. Many of the visitors bought 
needed supplies at the small stores. 



The Journey to Port La Gloria. 35 

Saturday was passed in the same way as 
Friday, the only incident of note being a 
small-sized disturbance which took place at 
the pier near midnight. Three belated Amer- 
icans, who had done more than look upon 
the " aguardiente," got into a quarrel with 
a Cuban boatman in regard to their return to 
the Yarmouth. The Americans were mainly 
at fault, the boatman was obstinate, and a 
war of words was soon followed by blows. 
The boatman was getting the worst of the 
scrimmage when several of the Cuban police 
swooped down upon the party. Two of the 
Americans drew revolvers, but they were 
quickly disarmed and overcome, one of the 
trio, who wore the uniform of the United 
States army, which he had lately quitted, 
falling over into the harbor in the scuffle. 
This sudden and unexpected ducking ended 
the fight; the "Americanos" compromised 
with the boatman, and were allowed to return 
to the Yarmouth. These intending colonists 
did not remain long at La Gloria, although 
one of the three purposes to return. The 
conduct of the Cuban police upon this occa- 
sion, and upon all others which came under 
my notice, was entirely creditable. They 
dress neatly, are sober and inoffensive in 



36 Pioneering in Cuba. 



manner, and appear to perform their duties 
conscientiously and well. 

While we lay in Nuevitas harbor we re- 
ceived several visits from Gen. A. L. Bres- 
ler and the Hon. Peter E. Park, president 
and resident manager, respectively, of the 
Cuban Land and Steamship Company, both 
of whom had been stopping in the city for 
some time. They had acquired the Cuban 
dress and, to some extent, Cuban habits. Mr. 
Park decided to accompany the colonists to 
La Gloria, and to share with them all the 
hardships that they might encounter on the 
journey. It was no new thing for Mr. Park 
to make the trip. He had made it slowly 
along the coast in a small sailboat ; he had 
made it in quicker time in a steam launch, 
and he had sometimes gone overland on 
horseback, struggling through mud and 
water and tangled vines, swimming swollen 
rivers and creeks, and fighting swarms of 
aggressive mosquitoes in the dense woods. 
He knew exactly what was before him ; the 
colonists did not. General Bresler, strange 
to say, had never been at La Gloria. 

It was on Sunday afternoon, at a little past 
one o'clock, that the colonists finally got away 
from Nuevitas and made the start for La 



The Journey to Port La Gloria. 37 

Gloria. The fleet consisted of three small 
schooners loaded with light baggage, a little 
freight, and nearly two hundred passengers. 
Two of the boats were Nuevitas lighters, 
with Cuban captains and crew, while the 
third was a schooner from Lake Worth, 
Florida, carrying about twenty colonists from 
that state. This boat, known as the Emily B., 
had arrived at Nuevitas a day or two before 
the Yarmouth. Among her passengers were 
four or five women. The heavy baggage of 
the Yarmouth colonists was loaded upon yet 
another lighter, which was to follow later. 

The colonists embarked upon the sailing 
craft from the decks of the Yarmouth, leav- 
ing behind a score or more of their number 
whose backbone had collapsed or who for 
some other reason had decided to return home 
immediately. It is, I believe, a veritable fact 
that more than one of the intending colonists 
went back on the same boat without so much 
as setting foot on the soil of Cuba. Probably 
examples of the "chocolate eclair" backbone 
are to be found everywhere. One of the re- 
turning voyagers was a tall, thin man of 
middle age, wearing a long, red, sorrowful 
face. It had been apparent from the very 
start that his was an aggravated case of 



38 Pioneering in Cuba. 

home-sickness. He had shown unmistakable 
evidence of it before the Yarmouth had even 
left North river, and he did not improve as 
the vessel approached the coast of Cuba. He 
rarely spoke to anybody, and could be seen 
hour after hour kneeling in a most dejected atti- 
tude upon a cushioned seat in the main saloon, 
gazing mournfully out of the window at the 
stern across the broad waters. His was about 
the most striking example of sustained melan- 
choly that ever came under my observation, 
and could not seem other than ridiculous in 
that company. When we slowly moved away 
from the Yarmouth, I was not surprised to see 
this man standing silently upon the steamer's 
deck. The look of unillumined dejection 
was still upon his face. A man whose face 
does not light up under the subtle charm of 
the Cuban atmosphere is, indeed, a hopeless 
case, and ought not to travel beyond the limits 
of the county wherein lies his home. There 
were others who remained behind on the 
Yarmouth for better reasons. Mr. and Mrs. 
Crandall returned to New York because the 
company's sawmill, which he was to operate, 
had not been taken to La Gloria and was not 
likely to be for some time to come. Mrs. 
Crandall was the only woman passenger on 



The Journey to Port La Gloria. 39 

the voyage down and had been fearfully sea- 
sick all the way. Orders had been given that 
no women or children should be taken on this 
first excursion, but an exception was made in 
the case of Mrs. Crandall because she was 
the wife of an employe of the company. 

The departing colonists waved their good-bys 
to the Yarmouth, and the little fleet was towed 
out to the entrance of Nuevitas harbor, about 
ten miles, when the schooners came to anchor 
and the tugboat returned to the city. Although 
it was but little past three o'clock and the 
weather fine, the passengers learned to their 
dismay that the boats had anchored for the 
night. The furrowed-faced old captain 
would take no chances with the open sea at 
night and so would proceed no farther. " To- 
morrow — four o'clock — wind right — go ! " he 
said, with a dramatic gesture and what seemed 
to the colonists an unnecessarily explosive 
emphasis on the last word. 

The boats were anchored in the narrow 
entrance to the harbor, where the smooth- 
running tide closely resembled a river. On 
one bank, one hundred yards away, were an 
old stone fort and a few Cuban shacks. Some 
of the passengers were desirous of going 
ashore to see the fort and the houses, but 



40 Pioneering in Cuba. 

neither entreaties nor bribes could force the 
•old Cuban captain to allow the use of his small 
boats. The Cubans are fond of waiting and 
cannot appreciate American restlessness. So 
we were obliged to sit quietly and gaze wist- 
fully at the green-clad shore. As night came 
on, it was found that loaves of bread and large 
chunks of salt beef constituted the larder. It 
was poor fare, but the colonists accepted the 
situation cheerfully and broke bread and ate 
as much of the greasy meat as they could. 

It was a radiant evening, with soft, caress- 
ing breezes and a starlit sky of incomparable 
beauty. Many of the voyagers saw the famed 
Southern Cross for the first time and gazed at 
it long in silent contemplation, overcome by 
that delicious feeling of dreamy content which 
takes possession of one in the tropics. On 
one of the boats, religious services were held, 
conducted by a Georgia clergyman, the Rev. 
A. E. Seddon of Atlanta, one of the most en- 
thusiastic and uncomplaining of the colonists. 
The singing of hymns was joined in by many 
of the eighty-seven passengers on the boat, 
and prayers were offered by no less than four 
individuals. It was a singularly impressive 
scene, not altogether unlike what took place 
on board the Mayflower centuries before. 



The Journey to Port La Gloria. 41 

The peaceful evening was followed by a 
night of great discomfort. The passengers 
were crowded together, and many slept, or 
attempted to sleep, on boxes, barrels, or the 
lumber which formed a part of the cargo of 
the schooner. I slept, at intervals, on the 
lumber designed for the hotel at La Gloria. 
Often had I slept in hotels, but this was my 
first experience in sleeping on one. Some of 
the passengers on the schooners sat up all 
night in preference to lying upon boxes and 
lumber. We were not, however, without 
entertainment during that long, wearisome 
night. We had a philosopher among us, in 
the person of quaint old Benjamin Franklin — 
of Griffin's Corners, New York — who talked 
earnestly and eloquently upon his appalling 
experiences in Confederate military prisons 
many years before. The handful of soldiers 
of the Spanish war were modestly silent in 
the presence of this gaunt old veteran of the 
great civil strife. Judge Groesbeck, of Wash- 
ington, D. C, quoted poetry and told 
anecdotes and stories, while the Rev. Mr. 
Seddon, Dr. W. P. Peirce of Hoopeston, 111., 
and others, contributed their share to the con- 
versation. As we became drowsy, we could 
hear, now and again, some one of our com- 



42 



Pioneering in Cuba. 



panions giving an imitation of the Cuban 
captain: "To-morrow — four o'clock — wind 
right — go ! " 

Early in the morning, true to his word, the 
captain set sail, and as the wind was right 




An Involuntary Bath. 

good progress was made. One of the divert- 
ing incidents of the morning was the fall of 
the captain overboard. In the crowded con- 
dition of the boat, he lost his footing and went 
over backward into the water. He scrambled 
back again in a hurry, with a look of deep 



The Journey to Port La Gloria. 43 

disgust upon his rather repulsive face, but the 
inconsiderate "Americanos" greeted him 
with a roar of laughter. One enterprising 
amateur photographer secured a snapshot of 
him as he emerged dripping from his invol- 
untary bath. A little later one of the Cubans 
caught a handsome dolphin, about two feet 
and a half long. The crew cooked it and 
served it up at ten cents a plate. As our 
schooner, drawing five feet of water, entered 
the inlet about fifteen miles from the port of 
La Gloria, she dragged roughly over the 
rocky bottom for some distance and came per- 
ilously near suffering misfortune. The other 
schooners came in collision at about this time 
and a panic ensued. No serious damage re- 
sulted, however. It was between twelve and 
one o'clock that afternoon that the port of La 
Gloria was sighted. 



CHAPTER III. 

A Tough Tramp to La Gloria City. 

As the fleet of schooners drew near La 
Gloria port, a row of small tents was dis- 
cerned close to the shore. Elsewhere there 
was a heavy growth of bushes to the water's 
edge — the mangroves and similar vegetation 
fairly growing out into the sea. Between 
and around the tents was a wretched slough 
of sticky, oozy mud nearly a foot deep, with 
streams of surface water flowing over it in 
places into the bay. The colonists were 
filled with excitement and mingled emotions 
as they approached the shore, but their hearts 
sank when they surveyed this discouraging 
scene. They landed on the rude pier, and 
after much difficulty succeeded in depositing 
their light baggage in tents reserved for the 
purpose. Narrow boards laid down to walk 
on were covered with slippery mud, and some 
lost their footing and went over headforemost 
into the slough. One jaunty, well-dressed 
young man from New Jersey, who had found 
the trip vastly entertaining up to this point, 



A Tough Tramp to La Gloria. 45 

was so disgusted at suffering a * ' flop-over " 
into the mire that he turned immediately back 
and returned to his home in Atlantic City. 
And so the sifting process went on among the 
intending colonists. 

The conditions at the port at that time were 
certainly most unpleasant. Mud and water 
were on every hand, and sand flies were as 
thick as swarms of bees, and nearly as fero- 
cious ; they allowed no one any peace. The 
company had considerately provided coffee 
and bread for the landing " immigrants," and 
something of the sort was certainly needed to 
fortify them for what was to follow. Lunch 
over, such of the colonists as had not decided 
to turn back started for the "city" of La 
Gloria, four miles inland. We found that 
the electric cars were not running, that the 
'bus line was not in operation, and that we 
could not take a carriage to the hotel ; nor 
was there a volante, a wagon, a bullock cart, 
a horse, mule, or pony in evidence. Neither 
was there a balloon or any other kind of 
airship. We learned further that a row- 
boat could be used only a portion of the 
way. Under the circumstances, we decided 
to walk. 

The road, if such it may be called, led 




is 



*, 



A Tough Tramp to La Gloria. 47 

through an open savanna, with occasional 
belts of timber. There had been heavy rains 
just before our arrival, and the trail was one 
of the most wretched ever followed by a 
human being. For about a quarter of a mile 
there was an apology for a corduroy road, 
but the logs composing it were so irregular 
and uneven in size, and had been so disar- 
ranged by surface water and so nearly cov- 
ered with debris that it all seemed to have 
been placed there to obstruct travel rather 
than to facilitate it. After the corduroy, the 
trail was a disheartening mixture of water, 
mud, stumps, roots, logs, briers, and branches. 
Now we would be wading through shallow 
water and deep mud that almost pulled our 
shoes off; then splashing through water and 
tall, coarse grass; and again, carefully 
threading our precarious way among ugly 
stumps, logs, and fallen limbs, in water 
above our knees. At times the traveler found 
himself almost afloat in the forest. He was 
lucky, indeed, if he did not fall down, a mis- 
fortune which was little less than a tragedy. 
Before leaving the port we had been advised 
to remove our stockings and roll our trousers 
above our knees. Few of us had on any- 
thing better than ordinary shoes, and the 



4 8 



Pioneering - in Cuba, 



sensation of tramping through the mud and 
water with these was far from pleasant. 
Many had rubber boots or leggings in their 
trunks, but the trunks were still at Nue vitas. 




Author on Road to La Gloria. {Jan. 8, /goo.) 

Notwithstanding the bad road, one hundred 
and sixty stout-hearted colonists set out for 
La Gloria between i 130 and 3 o'clock. They 
straggled along for miles, old men and young 
men, and even lame men ; some with valises, 



A Tough Tramp to La Gloria. 49 

some with bundles, and many with overcoats. 
In the lead was Peter E. Park, the Detroit 
lawyer who for months had been acting as 
the Cuban manager for the company. His 
stalwart form was encased in a suit of white 
duck, and he wore a broad, slouch hat and 
high, leather boots. He looked quite pic- 
turesque as he strode through the mud and 
water, apparently trying to impress the col- 
onists with the idea that the poor road was 
nothing to justify making a fuss. Inwardly, 
no doubt, he was somewhat sensitive on the 
subject of the road ; justly or unjustly, the 
colonists blamed him for its condition. 

It was hot and hard work, this four-mile 
walk under a tropical sun, but the men bore 
it with a good deal of patience. I started 
with a pair of rubbers on, but was compelled 
to abandon them before getting far, leaving a 
large amount of rich Cuban soil in and on 
them. The scene which presented itself was 
unique and interesting. All sorts of costumes 
were worn, including some young fellows in 
soldiers' uniforms, and there was no little 
variety in the luggage carried. Some stag- 
gered under very heavy loads. Quite a num- 
ber of cameras and kodaks were to be seen. 
The trail led through a rich savanna, s6il 
4 



50 Pioneering in Cuba. 

which is undoubtedly adapted to the raising 
of sugar cane, rice, and cocoanuts. Many 
palmetto and palm trees lined the way. One 
could not well view the scenery without stop- 
ping, for fear of losing one's footing. Thorns 
were troublesome and easily penetrated the 
wet shoes of the weary travelers. The col- 
onists all agreed that this road was the freest 
from dust of any they had ever trod. 

At last, after two hours of toil and discom- 
fort, we came in sight of dry land and the 
camp. We had crossed two small creeks and 
seen a few unoccupied native shacks. No 
part of the land had been cultivated. Many 
of us had seen for the first time close at hand 
the majestic royal palm, which is deservedly 
the most distinguished tree in the island. It is 
a tree without branches, crowned at the top of 
a perfectly straight shaft with a bunch of long, 
graceful, dark green leaves. The royal palm 
rises to a height of sixty, seventy, and even 
eighty feet, its symmetrical shape and whitish 
color giving it the appearance of a marble 
column. It bears no fruit, and affords little 
shade, but it is highly ornamental and forms 
a striking feature of the landscape. The tree 
often lives to be two hundred years old ; it 
has twenty leaves, one of which is shed about 



A Tough Tramp to La Gloria. 51 

once a month. It has been stated that the 
seeds from a single tree will support one 
good-sized hog. 

As we approached our destination we 
passed two buxom women sitting on a huge 
stump. They were clad in shirt waists, 
belted trousers and leggings, and wore broad 
hats of a masculine type. We silently won- 
dered if this was the prevailing fashion among 
the women of La Gloria, but soon found that 
it was not. Even the pair that we had first 
seen came out a few days later in dainty 
skirts and feminine headgear. Indeed, we 
found La Gloria, in some respects, more civ- 
ilized than we had anticipated. 

It was late in the afternoon of Monday, Jan- 
uary 8, 1900, that the one hundred and sixty 
members of the first excursion to establish the 
first American colony in Cuba, reached the 
camp which occupied the site of La Gloria 
city of to-day. We found about a dozen 
tents, and as many more native shacks occu- 
pied by Cubans who were at work for the 
company. The Cubans numbered about 
fifty, and the American employes nearly as 
many more. There were also a few Florida 
and other settlers who had reached the spot 
early. Altogether, the population just before 



J 



wmm^jk 




Col. Thomas H. Maginniss. 



A Tough Tramp to La Gloria. 53 

our arrival was about one hundred, seven or 
eight of whom were women. 

The white city grew rapidly after we ap- 
peared on the scene. The company had 
tents, which we were obliged to put up for 
ourselves, and it was several hours before we 
had opportunity to even partially dry our wet 
feet and shoes. All that evening little groups 
of barefooted men could be seen gathered 
around camp-fires, drying themselves and 
their clothing. The distribution, location, and 
erection of the tents was placed in charge of 
Col. Thomas H. Maginniss of Philadelphia, 
Pa., an ex-officer of the United States regular 
army and a veteran of the Civil War, who had 
come down among the colonists on the Tar- 
mouth. Colonel Maginniss was a handsome 
man of great stature, youthful in appearance, 
mentally alert and physically active, with 
very prepossessing manners. Although a little 
past fifty years of age, he looked to be hardly 
more than forty. He was a favorite from the 
start, and aside from being a picturesque per- 
sonality, soon became an influential power 
among the colonists. So efficiently did he 
perform his duties in supervising the erection 
of the tent city, that a little later he wasregu- 
larly given the position of superintendent of 



54 Pioneering in Cuba. 

camp, in the employ of the company. He 
held this post until his return to the States, 
early in April. 

Our first night in La Gloria was not one of 
sybaritic pleasure. We were able to secure 
some poor cots and one thin blanket apiece. 
This was insufficient, for the nights, or rather 
the early mornings, were quite cold. Some 
of the men were obliged to sit up all night to 
gather warmth from fires. The rotten cloth 
on the cots went to pieces, in most cases, be- 
fore the night was over, and, altogether, sleep 
was at a premium. Many of the tents were 
crowded ; in mine were eight persons, repre- 
senting nearly as many states. Fortunately, 
the insects gave us very little trouble. The 
population of the camp that first night must 
have been nearly three hundred, and the next 
day it increased to quite that number. 



While the colonists did not arrive at La 
Gloria in any considerable numbers until Jan- 
uary, 1900, the preliminary operations began 
there on October 9, 1899, when Chief Engi- 
neer J. C. Kelly landed with a survey corps 
from Texas. It was a splendid corps of 
bright, hardy, plucky, indefatigable men, 
skilful in their work and under discipline as 



A Tough Tramp to La Gloria. 55 

rigid as that of an army. Chief Kelly was 
from Eagle Lake, Texas, in which state he 
had become well known through the perform- 
ance of a great deal of important work. He 
was an exceedingly capable engineer, a strict 
but just disciplinarian, a good financier, and 
at all times highly popular with his men, 
whose devotion to him was as striking as that 
often shown by soldiers to their colonel or 
their general. Mr. Kelly was an interesting 
talker, and an athlete and amateur imperson- 
ator of no mean pretensions. With him he 
brought, as assistant chief, Mr. H. O. Neville, 
a well-educated, versatile, and agreeable 
young man. Among the others in the Texas 
party were Sam M. Van der Voort, son of the 
general, and I. G. Wirtz, both of whom later 
became instrument men. S. H. Packer, also 
of Texas, was one of the corps. From New 
York came F. Kimble and J. A. Messier, the 
latter familiarly known as "Albany," and 
from Havana, B. B. Lindsley, all three serv- 
ing later as instrument men more or less of 
the time. All the men above mentioned were 
efficient surveyors and good fellows, each 
something of a "character" in his way. 
Among other early arrivals, most of whom 
were attached to the survey corps, were O. V. 



56 Pioneering in Cuba. 

De Long of Havana, H. L. Starker of Chi- 
cago, David Porter of Detroit, Richard Head 
of Florida, J. A. McCauley of New York, 
Will Corlett, and Jack Griffith. 

The experiences of the members of the 
survey corps at La Gloria had been a con- 
tinued story of hardship, privation, and ex- 
posure. They came in before the rainy sea- 
son had ended, pushing their toilsome way 
through tangled vines and thorny thickets, 
wading through mud and water, and often 
being compelled to swim swollen creeks. 
Much of the time they patiently worked knee 
deep or waist deep in water, covered with 
swarms of mosquitoes or other pestiferous 
insects. Often they had little to eat save 
cornmeal "mush" and boniatos (sweet 
potatoes) ; but for all this, they were seldom 
ill and rarely made a complaint. Sleeping 
in their wet clothes, which would not dry in 
the dampness of the night, they were up 
early each morning ready for another day's 
attack upon the jungle. The fact that they 
were not more often sick is the best testi- 
monial to the healthfulness of the climate of 
northeastern Cuba that has come under my 
notice. It speaks volumes, especially when 
it is known that a little later men from the 



A Tough Tramp to La Gloria. 57 

Northern states, and even British Columbia, 
worked on the survey corps under similar 
conditions and with like immunity from seri- 
ous illness. Occasionally, to be sure, they 
would be poisoned from standing too long in 
water or coming in contact with the giiao 
tree, or shrub, but this affliction, while severe, 
was never fatal. The good work faithfully 
and uncomplainingly performed by the sur- 
vey corps in and around La Gloria, under 
such trying circumstances, is worthy of as 
much praise and admiration as a successful 
military campaign. It required courage, 
skill, and patient endurance to move upon 
and tame this tropical forest on the north 
coast of Cuba. 

A handful of colonists followed the survey 
corps into La Gloria at intervals, the first 
ladies coming in December. These were 
Mrs. D. E. Lowell and Mrs. W. G. Spiker; 
they came with their husbands. Mr. Lowell 
had been a prosperous orange and pineapple 
grower in Florida until the great freeze came, 
and Mr. Spiker was a successful photographer 
in Ohio before leaving his state to find him a 
new home in the tropics. The Lowells and 
Spikers were intelligent and cultivated people 
who had been accustomed to a good style of 



58 Pioneering in Cuba. 

living, but who were now ready to undertake 
a rough, pioneer life in the strong hope of a 
bright future. The party landed at Palota, 
northwest of La Gloria, and came in with 
horses and wagon of their own, following the 
roughest kind of trail for the larger part of 
nine miles. It was a hard and perilous trip; 
only with the greatest difficulty could the 
horses draw the load through the heavy mud 
and over the deeply gullied road. More than 
once the team seemed hopelessly stuck, but 
was extricated after a time and the toilsome 
journey continued. At last the bedraggled 
party reached La Gloria, and the first women 
colonists set foot on the soil of the future 
Cuban-American city. When the Yarmouth 
colonists arrived, the Lowells and Spikers 
had been living at La Gloria for several 
weeks ; they were well and happy, and 
pleased with the climate and the country. 



CHAPTER IV. 

First Days in the New Colony. 

The first few days after our arrival we led 
a strange and what seemed to many of us an 
unreal life. Shut into a small open space by 
a great forest, with no elevation high enough 
for us to see even so much of the outside 
world as hills, mountains, or the sea, it 
almost seemed as if we had dropped off of 
the earth to some unknown planet. Day 
after day passed without our seeing the hori- 
zon, or hearing a locomotive or steamboat 
whistle. We had no houses, only tents, and 
there was not a wooden building of any sort 
within a dozen miles. At night the camp 
was dimly lighted by nickering fires and the 
starry sky, and through the semi-darkness 
came the hollow, indistinct voices of men 
discussing the outlook for the future. There 
were always some who talked the larger part 
of the night, and others who invariably rose 
at three o'clock in the morning ; this was two 
hours before light. In the deep forest at 
night were heard strange sounds, but high 



60 Pioneering in Cuba. 

above them all, every night and the whole of 
the night, the harsh, complaining note of a 
certain bird who seemed to be eternally 
unreconciled to the departure of day. I think 
it was a bird, but it may have been the wail 
of a lost soul. 

It was lonesome there in the wilds of Cuba 
in those early days of the new colony, and 
doubtless there was some homesickness, but 
the reader should not gain the impression that 
the pioneers were downcast and unhappy. 
On 'the contrary, they were delighted with 
the climate and the country, despite the diffi- 
culties encountered in entering it and the 
deprivations which had to be put up with. 
From the first, the colonists, generally speak- 
ing, were more than cheerful : they were 
happy and contented. Buoyant in spirits, 
eager to explore and acquire information con- 
cerning the surrounding country, they enjoyed 
the pioneer life with the keenest relish. 
They laughed at the hardships and priva- 
tions, made friends with each other and with 
the Cubans, and tramped the woods and 
trails with reckless disregard of mud and 
water and thorny underbrush. The men 
were astonished to find themselves in such 
-excellent health ; the more they exposed 



First Days in the New Colony. 61 

themselves, the more they seemed to thrive,, 
until nearly every man in the colony was 
ready to say that he was better physically 
and mentally than when he left home. It 
was the same with the women, whose im- 
proved health, entire cheerfulness, and evi- 
dent contentment were a revelation to the 
observer. There are many women who take 
as readily to a pioneer life as do the men. 
This was notably the case in La Gloria. 

The colonists had not come to La Gloria 
in search of a health resort — at least, the 
great majority had not — but that is what they 
found. Scarcely had we set foot on the soil 
of Cuba when those of us who had catarrh — 
and what Yankee has not? — found that we 
no longer suffered from the affliction. This 
cure, which proved permanent, was some- 
thing the majority of us had not counted on. 
•Nor had we counted on the entire freedom 
from colds which we enjoyed in the island. 
But the cure of catarrh was of small import- 
ance in comparison with the sudden and 
marked improvement in those who suffered 
from nervous diseases. It is not too much 
to say, that many found the soothing Cuban 
climate a specific for such disease which they 
had not dreamt of in their philosophy. Those 



62 Pioneering in Cuba. 



with kidney ailments and rheumatism re- 
ported themselves improved, and there was 
not wanting evidence that persons with con- 
sumptive tendencies and other weaknesses 
would find the air salubrious and a residence 
in this part of the island beneficial. 

The temperature at this time was delight- 
ful, a close approach to perfection, the ther- 
mometer ranging from 70 to 84 at noon, 
and rarely falling below 6o° at any time of 
day. It still rained frequently, an unusual 
and remarkable prolongation of the rainy 
season, which ordinarily ends in November, 
but the water fell in brief showers and left 
the rest of the day bright and clear. Indeed, 
it was not until February that the rain ceased 
altogether and the dry season fairly began. 
The Cubans declared that they had never 
known the wet season to continue so late. 

The long continued rains were held respon- 
sible, perhaps justly so, for many of the in- 
conveniences and drawbacks which the col- 
onists encountered. The company stoutly 
declared that to these unusual meteorological 
conditions was due the failure to build the 
road to the port which had been promised, 
and that the absence of the road prevented 
the transportation of the lumber for the con- 



First Days in the New Colony. 63 

struction of the hotel. This latter assertion 
was true beyond all question. The " hotel " 
was a subject of much comment and immod- 
erate mirth. It existed on paper in spacious 
and imposing elegance ; it was a splendid 
structure of the imagination. But let it not 
be thought for one moment that the hotel was 
wholly a myth. Not so ; the situation would 
not have been half so funny if it had been. 
There stood the foundation for the immense 
building squarely across Central avenue, 
about a quarter of a mile back from the front 
line of the town. A large space had been 
cleared in the forest, and the centre of this 
opening was the hotel site. The foundation 
consisted of large logs of hard wood, sawed 
about four feet long and stood upright. They 
were set in cement on stone that was sunk 
slightly below the surface of the ground. 
How many of these logs there were I cannot 
say, but there was a small army of them, 
aligned across Central avenue and extending 
far to either side. Under the dim light of 
the stars they looked like a regiment of 
dwarfs advancing to attack the camp. Work- 
men were putting the finishing touches on 
this foundation when we arrived, but the 
work was soon discontinued altogether, leav- 



First Days in the New Colony. 65 

ing the wooden army to serve as an outpost 
of slowly advancing civilization. Of course, 
we always directed new arrivals to the 
"hotel" as soon as they came in over the 
"road" from the port! After a while we 
became so fond of the hotel joke that I think 
we should have been sorry to see the building 
completed. 

The bad road to the port also cut oft' all 
chance of getting the sawmill up to La 
Gloria, and it daily became more evident 
that we should continue to dwell in tents for 
some time to come. We were destitute 
enough during those first days in the colony. 
Our trunks had not come, and did not for 
several weeks, and many of us were without 
change of clothing or even a towel. We 
washed in a small creek which ran through 
the Cuban camp, wiping our hands and faces 
on handkerchiefs. This and other creeks 
served us well for drinking water, and there 
was also an excellent spring on the com- 
pany's reserve north of the town. Very little 
freight could be brought up from the port, 
and hence it was that we were not over-well 
supplied with provisions. There was usually 
enough in quantity, but the quality was poor 
and there was a painful lack of variety. The 
5 



66 Pioneering in Cuba. 

engineer corps' cook house was hastily en- 
larged into a public restaurant upon our 
.-arrival, and did the best it could to feed the 
hungry colonists. Some of the latter boarded 
themselves from the start — purchasing what 
.supplies they could get at the commissary — 
and perhaps had a shade the best of it. 

I shall never forget my first supper in 
La Gloria. It was at the company's restau- 
rant. We were crowded together on long, 
movable benches, under a shelter tent. Be- 
fore us were rough board tables innocent 
of cloth. The jejines (gnats or sand flies) 
swarmed about us, disputing our food and 
•drink and even the air we breathed. The 
food was not served in courses ; it came on 
all at once, and the " all" consisted of cold 
bread without butter, macaroni, and tea with- 
out milk. There were not even toothpicks 
or glasses of water. Amid the struggling 
humanity, and regardless of the inhumanity 
of the jejines (pronounced by the Cubans 
"haheens"), my gentlemanly friend from 
Medfield, Mass., sat at my right and calmly 
ate his supper with evident relish. He was 
fond of macaroni and tea. Alas ! I was not. 
At home he had been an employe in an 
insane asylum. I, alas ! had not enjoyed 



First Days in the New Colony. 67 

the advantages of such wholesome discipline. 
Of that supper I remember three things most 
distinctly — the jejines, my friend's fondness 
for macaroni and tea, and the saintly patience 
and good-humor of our waiter, Al Noyes. 

It was not long before there was an im- 
provement in the fare, although no great 
variety was obtainable. We usually had, 
however, the best there was in camp. The 
staples were salt beef, bacon, beans, and 
sweet potatoes or yams, and we sometimes 
had fresh pork (usually wild hog), fried 
plantains, and thin, bottled honey. We often 
had oatmeal or corn meal mush, and occa- 
sionally; we rejoiced in a cook whose culinary 
talent comprehended the ability to make frit- 
ters. The bread was apt to be good, and we 
had Cuban coffee three times a day. We 
had no butter, and only condensed milk. It 
was considerably later, when I ate at the 
chief engineer's table, that we feasted on 
flamingo and increased our muscular devel- 
opment by struggling with old goat. If it 
had been Chattey's goat, no one would have 
complained, but unfortunately it was not. 
Chattey was our cook, and he kept several 
goats, one of which had a pernicious habit of 
hanging around the dining tent. One day, 



First Days in the New Colony. 69 

just before dinner, he was discovered sitting 
on a pie in the middle of the table, greedily 
eating soup out of a large dish. Chattey's 
goat was a British goat, and had no respect 
for the Constitution of the United States or 
the table etiquette which obtained in the first 
American colony in Cuba. The soup was 
dripping from Billy's whiskers, which he had 
not even taken the trouble to wipe. It is cer- 
tain that British goats have no table manners. 
But I am getting ahead of my story. The 
condition of the road to the port was so bad 
for some time after our arrival that it was 
barely possible to get up sufficient provisions 
to supply the daily needs of the camp, to say 
nothing of other freight. We were in need 
of almost everything to furnish our tents or to 
Degin agricultural operations. There was, to 
be sure, the " commissary," where the com- 
pany had confidently assured us in its adver- 
tising literature " every necessary article from 
a plough to a knitting needle " would be on 
sale "at the most reasonable prices." As a 
matter of fact, the commissary was almost as 
bare as the famous cupboard of old Mother 
Hubbard, and of the commodities that were 
stored there, very few seemed to be for sale 
to the colonists. After several ineffectual 



jo y Pioneering in Cuba. 

attempts to get what I wanted, I entered the 
commissary tent one day to make a test case. 
Of Mr. Richardson, the man in charge, I 
blandly inquired : 

" Can I get a tin pail? " 

" No," with a gentle shake of the head. 

' ' Can I get any kind of a pail ? " 

" No," with another shake. 

" Can I get a tin pan or a wash basin?" 

" No," with a shake. 

11 Can I get a tin dish or an earthen dish or 
a wooden dish? " 

" No," with more shakes. 

" Can I buy a tin cup or an earthen mug?' r 

" No," with a vigorous shake. 

" Can I buy a knife, fork, or spoon?" 

" No, no," with two quick shakes. 

" Can I buy a piece of cloth of any kind? " 

" No, sir," stiffly. 

" Can I buy an empty box?" 

"No, sir, you can't — need 'em all our- 
selves." 

"Is there anything that you have got to 
sell?" I inquired meekly. 

" Well, there is some mosquito netting over 
there." 

I had mosquito netting — but mosquito net- 
ting did not make a very good drinking 



First Days in the New Colony. y\ 

utensil. I left the commissary without in- 
quiring for a plough or a knitting needle. 

The population of La Gloria fluctuated 
greatly during the first week after our ad- 
vent. Our arrival and the additions of the 
following day had brought the total popula- 
tion of the camp up to at least three hundred. 
The wet and muddy trails, and the back- 
wardness of all improvements, increased 
enormously the feeling of distrust among the 
colonists, and some began to loudly question 
the security of titles. This alarm, which ulti- 
mately proved to be entirely unfounded, kept 
the camp in a ferment for a day or two. 
Oceans of discussion were indulged in, Mr. 
Park was closely and warmly questioned, 
and there was a general feeling of uneasiness 
and unrest. The result was that when the 
last half of the week had begun, La Gloria 
had suffered a loss of nearly one hundred of 
its population. Discouraged and disgusted 
men made their way back to the coast, hop- 
ing to get transportation to Nuevitas, and 
thence back to their respective homes. 
There was a delay at Port La Gloria, and a 
few remained there until they had made up 
their minds to return to the camp. The 
others went on to Nuevitas, but were unable 



72 Pioneering in Cuba. 

to secure transportation at once to the States. 
The consequence was that nearly or quite 
one half eventually returned to La Gloria, 
straggling in from time to time. 

As the week drew to a close the town 
quieted down, the restless spirits having de- 
parted. Those of us who remained either 
had faith in the ultimate success of the proj- 
ect, or were at least disposed to give the 
enterprise a fair trial. We were not easily 
stampeded ; and we placed some reliance on 
Senator Park's positive assurance that the 
deeds would be all right. We saw, of 
course, that the company's affairs had been 
badly managed, and that promised improve- 
ments had not as yet materialized, but, on the 
other hand, we had learned from personal 
observation that the land was good, the tim- 
ber valuable, the drinking water pure and 
abundant, and the climate delightful beyond 
description. The most of those who returned 
to the States with harrowing tales either never 
got as far as La Gloria at all, or else spent 
less than forty-eight liours in the camp. The 
majority of the colonists cheerfully stuck by 
the colony, and laughed at the untruthful and 
exaggerated newspaper stories as they were 
sent down to us from the frozen North. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Allotment of the Land. 

The chief of the immediate problems 
which confronted the colonists and the offi- 
cers of the company was the allotment of the 
land. The company had purchased it, or 
secured options on it, in large tracts, some 
of these tracts containing over ten thousand 
acres each. The colonists had contracted 
for it in small holdings, varying from a town 
lot, 25 x 100 feet in size, to a forty-acre tract 
of plantation land. No more than forty acres 
were sold to any one on a single contract. 
The contracts which could be made were, 
respectively, as follows : Town lots, three 
sizes, 25 x 100 feet, 50 x 100, and 50 x 150; 
plantation land, i\ acres, 5 acres, 10 acres, 
20 acres, and 40 acres. The purchaser paid 
in full or on monthly instalments, as he pre- 
ferred, being allowed a discount of ten per 
cent, for cash. According to the terms of the 
contracts, he did not purchase the land at all, 
but bought stock in a cooperative company 
and the land was a gift to him. However, 



74 - Pioneering in Cuba. 

the cooperative company feature was always 
in the background in the mind of the colonist, 
and he felt that he was buying the land and 
almost invariably so termed the transaction. 
It was the land he had his eye on, and his 
present anxiety was to have a good piece 
promptly allotted to him. 

At the company's headquarters in New 
York, no plan of subdivision had been formu- 
lated further than a general promise in adver- 
tising circulars to allot the land in the order of 
the numbers of the contracts. At first glance, 
this seemed both fair and feasible, but once, on 
the ground at La Gloria, some very formida- 
ble difficulties loomed up. Of the four or five 
thousand persons who had invested up to 
that time less than three hundred were at La 
Gloria, and there was not in Cuba even a list 
of the people who had made contracts with 
the company, to say nothing of their respec- 
tive holdings and the status of their payments. 
No such list could be obtained from New 
York under several weeks or perhaps months, 
and when obtained would be of little value for 
the reason that there could not possibly be 
land enough surveyed by that time to allot 
one half of the thousands of investors. Sur- 
veying in this dense tropical forest was neces- 



The Allotment of the Land. 7$ 

sarily slow work, and progress had been im- 
peded by the long-continued rains. 

It was manifestly impossible to make a 
general allotment of the land at once, and 
yet it was essential that the colonists who had 
actually arrived on the spot should be given 
their tracts promptly and permitted to go to- 
work upon them. The life of the colony 
seemed to hinge on action of this sort. Quite 
early the company had stated that the subdi- 
vision would be made about January 1, and 
when General Van der Voort arrived in New 
York in the latter part of December, he 
assured the colonists who were preparing to 
sail with him to Cuba that they should have 
their land by January 15. This promise was 
carried out to the letter, and was the only 
rational course of action that could be pur- 
sued under the existing circumstances. It 
undoubtedly saved the colony at what was a 
critical stage. During the voyage down, the 
colonists on board the Yarmouth were greatly 
exercised over the method of allotment? that 
is to say, many of them were, while others- 
declared that they would be satisfied if they 
only got their land promptly. General Van 
der Voort gave the subject much anxious con- 
sideration, seeking to devise a plan which 



y6 Pioneering in Cuba. 

-should be at once just and practical. He 
finally decided that the fairest and best thing 
to do was to place the matter in the hands of 
a committee of the colonists, giving them the 
power to prescribe the method of allotment 
within certain limitations, subject to the ap- 
proval of the colonists on the ground. The 
general described this as the "town-meet- 
ing" principle, and his decision gave entire 
satisfaction to the pioneers. 

General Van der Voort arrived in La 
Gloria Thursday, January n, having re- 
mained behind at Nuevitas to see the bag- 
gage of the colonists through the custom 
house. This accomplished, he took passage 
for La Gloria on board the lighter carrying 
the trunks, etc. The voyage was not a 
smooth one. The boat came near being 
wrecked in the rough sea, and suffered the 
loss of its rudder. Finally an anchorage 
was effected about a dozen miles from the 
La Gloria shore, and General Van der Voort 
and others were taken off in a small boat. 
The trunks and other baggage were not 
landed until nearly a week later, and it was 
several weeks before much of the luggage 
reached La Gloria city. The contents of 
many of the trunks suffered serious damage 



The Allotment of the Land. yy 

from water and mould, although in some cases 
the things came through entirely uninjured. 

General Van der Voort rode from Port La 
Gloria to the camp on horseback, a hard trip, 
for the road had not improved. The mud 
and water and debris made it a slow and 
exhausting journey. He assumed charge of 
the company's business in the colony at once. 
Arrangements were made for a prompt allot- 
ment of the land, and a committee of nine 
colonists, with Dr. W. P. Peirce of Hoopes- 
ton, 111., as chairman, was chosen to devise a 
plan of distribution. After several prolonged 
sessions, the committee unanimously reported 
a scheme by which those present should 
select their land from the official map in the 
order of the priority of their purchases. After 
these, the investors having authorized repre- 
sentatives on the ground, the latter holding 
powers of attorney, were to have their chance. 
In this second class, also, priority of purchase 
governed the order of selection. The report 
further provided that the investor should be 
allowed a second choice if he found his land 
to be unsatisfactory. This plan, which I be- 
lieved then and believe now was- the best that 
could have been devised, was adopted by the 
colonists with but a single dissenting vote. 



78 Pioneering in Cuba. 

On Saturday, January 13, the allotment 
began, in what was known as headquarters 
tent. The committee which had formulated 
the plan of distribution was in charge, as- 
sisted by Chief Engineer Kelly, Architect 
Neff, and others. The town lots were given 
out first, and by night nearly all who were 
•entitled to make selections in these classes 
had been served. The town lot distribution 
was completed Monday morning, the 15th. 
The town was one mile square, and had been 
laid out and surveyed under the supervision of 
M. A. Custer Neff, civil engineer and archi- 
tect. It was traversed and counter-traversed 
hy streets and avenues, appropriately named. 
These were as yet, for the most part, only 
surveyors' paths cut through the forest, but 
they were much used as thoroughfares to 
reach town lots and the plantation lands be- 
yond. They were rough roads, filled with 
mud, water, stumps, stubble, and roots, but 
with the advent of the dry season they became 
more easily passable. The highway running 
through the centre of the town to and from 
the coast was known as Central avenue, and 
the road passing through the centre at right 
angles was called Dewey street. Around the 
intersecting point, the exact centre of the town, 



The Allotment of the Land. 79 

space had been reserved for a large plaza. 
Central avenue and Dewey street were each 
designed to be one hundred feet wide, and 
were naturally the paths most used by the 
colonists. The former actually extended from 
the rear line of the town northward to the 
bay, five miles away, while the latter continued 
from the side lines of the town out into the 
plantation lands to the east and w r est. The 
town site was well chosen. It has a fair ele- 
vation above the sea, a firm, hard soil, with 
steadily rising ground. The front line of the 
town is about twenty feet above tidewater ; the 
centre about one hundred feet, and the rear 
line nearly or quite two hundred feet. Around 
the town was a belt of land a quarter of a mile 
wide reserved by the, company ; then came 
the plantations on every side. 

When the committee finished the allotment 
of towm lots on the morning of January 15, it 
was found that nearly five hundred lots had 
been taken up out of a total in all classes of 
about three thousand six hundred. The col- 
onists had not been slow in selecting corner 
lots, and the lots on Central avenue and those 
facing the plaza on all sides were early pre- 
empted. The colonists had faith that a real 
city would rise on the chosen site. When the 



8o Pioneering in Cuba. 

demand for town lots had been satisfied, the 
committee began at once to give out the plan- 
tation land. The choice was necessarily re- 
stricted to about eight or ten thousand acres 
to the west, southwest, and northwest of the 
town, which was all that had been surveyed 
up to that time. When this condition was 
discovered by the colonists, the unsurveyed 
land to the north, south, and east began, natu- 
rally enough, to appear far more desirable in 
the eyes of the investors than that which had 
been surveyed to the westward, and some 
refused to make a selection at all, preferring 
delay to a restricted choice. The great ma- 
jority, however, mindful that they were priv- 
ileged to change if the land was not satisfac- 
tory, went ahead and made their selections. 
As a matter of fact, the surveyed tract to the 
westward was probably as good as any, all of 
the land held by the company being rich and 
highly productive. 

The first man to choose his plantation was 
Dr. W. P. Peirce of Hoopeston, 111., who, it 
so chanced, was chairman of the committee 
on allotment. Dr. Peirce's contract was No. 
2, and it was dated in January, 1899. But 
few contracts were made before April of that 
year. Contract No. 1 was not on the ground, 



The Allotment of the Land. 81 

and no one present knew who was the holder. 
The allotment was well conducted, and went 
on quite rapidly. It was eagerly watched by 
a large group of interested spectators, impa- 
tiently awaiting their turn. Some tried to 
extract inside information from the surveyors, 
who were supposed to know the relative value 
of every square foot of the land, but the ma- 
jority either made their choice blindly, with 
knowledge of nothing save the proximity of 
the tract to the town, or trusted to the meagre 
information they had acquired regarding the 
character of the land in different localities 
during their tramps in the few days since their 
arrival. 

It was a strange scene. Men of all ages 
and occupations, coming from nearly every 
one of the United States, and several other 
countries, strangers until a few days before, 
were crowded together in a large tent, each 
anxious to do the best possible for himself, and 
yet in few instances discourteous to his neigh- 
bor. It was a good-natured, well-behaved 
crowd, and there was no friction in the pro- 
ceedings. The colonists were satisfied that 
the plan of allotment was a fair one ; there 
was no complaint about anything except the 
restricted choice. Monday night saw r the 
6 




Robert C. Beausejour. 
( One of the Early Colonists.) 



The Allotment of the Land. 83 

allotment well advanced, and Tuesday it was 
finished. Everybody then on the ground who 
wished to make a selection for himself or 
those whom he represented had been accom- 
modated, and the committee's duties were at 
an end. Nearly seven thousand acres of 
plantation land had been allotted. 

As soon as they had selected their land from 
the map the colonists scurried out into the 
surrounding country to find it. The woods 
were full of men hunting their plantations. 
It was no easy matter to find them, since there 
w r as nothing to go by but the numbered stakes 
of the surveyors. These were anything but 
plain guides to the uninitiated, and even the 
more understanding were sometimes baffled 
by reason of indistinct figures or missing 
stakes. The result was that many viewed 
other people's land for their own, while some, 
conscious of their helplessness, gave up the 
search for the time being. The majority, 
however, found their land with no more diffi- 
culty than was inevitable in a long tramp 
through the rough and muddy paths of a jun- 
gle. The mosquitoes kept us company, and 
the parrots scolded us from overhead, but 
there were no wild beasts or venomous 
snakes to be dreaded. Probably there are no 



84 Pioneering in Cuba. 

tropical forests in the world so safe as those 
of Cuba ; one may sleep in them night after 
night without fear of death or disease. This 
is true, at least, of the country within a radius 
of forty miles from La Gloria, as I can testify 
from personal experience and observation. 

In most cases the colonists were pleased 
with their land when they found it, and the 
changes were comparatively few. A little of 
the lowest land was more or less under water, 
but even this was rarely given up, the holders 
discovering that it was very rich, and realizing 
that it would be all right in the dry season, 
and that it could be drained for the wet. 
Some experienced men from Florida showed 
a decided preference for this land, and later 
it developed that their judgment was good. 
This lowest land was of black soil ; that 
slightly higher was apt to be yellow, and the 
highest red or chocolate. All these different 
colored soils were embraced in the allotment 
which had been made, and they all repre- 
sented good land. The colonists could never 
agree as to which was the best. Undoubtedly 
some were superior for certain purposes to 
others, but all appeared to be fertile and gave 
promise of being very productive. The black 
and yellow soils were almost entirely free 



The Allotment of the Land. 



85 



from stone, while the red and chocolate had 
some, but seldom enough to do any harm. 
The colonists set to work with energy clear- 
ing their town lots, and a few began work at 
once on their plantations. The colony was 
soon a busy hive of industry. 




CHAPTER VI. 

The Sugar Riot. 

After the middle of January and the be- 
ginning of the allotment of the land, the 
population of La Gloria began to " pick up" 
somewhat. Colonists who had been linger- 
ing at Nuevitas, and some new ones who had 
come down from the States by the Munson 
line, would straggle in from time to time. 
People were coming and going almost every 
day, but the balance was in favor of the col- 
ony and the population slowly but surely 
increased. Among the new arrivals were 
quite a number of women and children. 
About January 20 the advance guard of the 
colonists who had come on the second excur- 
sion of the Yarmouth made its appearance. 
On this trip the Yarmouth brought about 
sixty passengers, the majority of whom finally 
got up to La Gloria. More would have come 
if Nuevitas at that time had not been a hotbed 
of misrepresentation regarding conditions in 
the new colony. All the unfavorable features 
were grossly and ridiculously exaggerated, 



The Sugar Riot. Sy 

while stories of starvation, sickness, and 
death were poured into the ears of new 
arrivals until many an intending colonist be- 
came convinced that it would be taking his 
life in his hand for him to make even the 
briefest visit to La Gloria. Such is the ten- 
dency of human nature to exaggerate, and to 
build a big sensation out of a small nucleus. 
People who had never seen La Gloria were 
the ones whose representations seemed to be 
most credited in the States and by the new 
arrivals therefrom. I saw a letter received 
by one of the company's officials at La Gloria 
from a woman in Asbury Park, N. J., who 
was nearly crazed by anxiety for her young- 
est son, who was then in the colony. She 
had heard frequently from her oldest son, 
who had been in La Gloria with the survey 
corps for several months, and he had always 
written very favorably of the place, so she 
said, but she had lately seen an Asbury Park 
man who had returned from Nuevitas and he 
had told a terrible story of suffering and 
danger in the colony. The woman's letter 
showed clearly that she discredited the ac- 
counts of her son and accepted those of the 
man who had brought back a harrowing tale. 
Why she credited the story of a man who 



The Sugar Riot. 89 

never got further than Nuevitas in preference 
to that of her own son, who had been at La 
Gloria for months, I never could understand, 
especially as the latter was an intelligent and 
apparently perfectly reliable young man. 
Doubtless mortals are predisposed to believe 
the worst. I looked up the woman's young- 
est son, and found him well and happy, and 
ready to join with his brother in speaking 
favorably of La Gloria. 

Meanwhile, we were living contentedly in 
La Gloria, enjoying excellent health and suf- 
fering no serious discomfort, and laughing in 
uproarious glee over the sensational articles 
which appeared in many of the newspapers 
of the States. With no little surprise we 
learned from the great newspapers of the 
United States that we were "marooned in a 
Cuban swamp," suffering from " malaria and 
starvation," and "dying of yellow fever and 
smallpox." As a matter of fact, at that time 
there had not been a single death or one case 
of serious sickness. The health of the colo- 
nists remained good through the winter, the 
spring, and even the following summer. 

Indeed, the colonists had but few griev- 
ances, so few that they would sometimes 
manufacture them out of trifles. Of such was 



90 Pioneering in Cuba. 

the "sugar riot" with its laughable and har- 
monious ending. One day in the latter part 
of January, when the arrival of provisions 
was barely keeping pace with the arrival of 
colonists, a small invoice of sugar was 
brought into La Gloria over the bad road 
from the port. Scarcely had it been un- 
loaded at the commissary when the head of 
the engineer corps took possession of about 
half of it for the surveyors and the boarders 
at their table, and gave orders that the other 
half should be turned over to the Cuban 
workmen of the company. The carrying out 
of this order aroused great indignation among 
the colonists who were boarding themselves 
and had run out of sugar, as most of them 
had. This action of the amateur " sugar 
trust " caused certain of the colonists to sour, 
so to speak, on all of the officers and chief 
employes of the company, for the time being, 
at least, and mutterings, " not loud but deep," 
were heard all about the camp. Not that 
there was danger of a sanguinary conflict, 
but a war of words seemed imminent. The 
" era of good feeling '* was threatened. 

A day or two later, on the evening of 
Saturday, January 27, a meeting of the colo- 
nists was held preparatory to the organization 



The Sugar Riot. 91 

of a pioneer association, and it was arranged 
among some of the leading spirits in the 
sugar agitation that at the close of this session 
the saccharine grievance should be publicly 
aired. The gathering was held around a 
camp-fire in the open air, in front of head- 
quarters tent. The regularly called meeting 
adjourned early, with a feeling of excited 
expectancy in the air. Something was about 
to happen. The officers of the company on 
the ground, it was understood, were to be 
raked over the coals for favoring the Cubans 
and thus perpetrating an outrage on the colo- 
nists. The colonists whose tempers had been 
kept sweet by a sufficiency of sugar lingered 
around in the pleasant anticipation of witness- 
ing an ofe?'a bouffe. 

But it was the unexpected that happened. 
Just as the sugar orators were preparing 
to orate, a man with muddy boots pushed 
through the crowd and entered headquarters 
tent. A moment later the stalwart form of 
Colonel Maginniss emerged from the tent, 
and in his hand he bore a slip of paper. It 
was a cablegram from New York, which had 
just been brought in from Nuevitas, announc- 
ing the election of General Van der Voort as 
president of the Cuban Land and Steamship 



92 Pioneering in Cuba. 

Company. When the dispatch had been 
read to the crowd, there was silence for an 
instant, and then the air was rent with cheers. 
There had never .been any question about 
General Van der Voort's popularity. The 
colonists had full faith in his honesty and 
devotion to the colony, and hence looked 
upon his election to the presidency of the 
company as the best possible security for the 
success of the enterprise. They had been 
distrustful of the management of the com- 
pany ; the choice for the new president in- 
spired them with renewed hope and confi- 
dence. It was the unanimous opinion that it 
was the best thing that could have happened. 
He was the right man in the right place ; he 
was in La Gloria to stay, and reckoned him- 
self as a colonist among them. 

The sugar agitators forgot that their coffee 
had not been sweetened for forty-eight hours, 
and joined heartily in the cheering. In fact, 
all who had " come to scoff remained to 
pray," so to speak. It was voted to send a 
cablegram to the New York office announc- 
ing the deep satisfaction of the colonists in 
the choice made for president. General 
Van der Voort responded to calls and made 
an excellent speech. 



The Sugar Riot. 93. 

A little later in the evening there was a 
big demonstration in honor of the significant 
event. More than anything else it resem- 
bled a Fourth of July celebration. Bonfires 
were lighted and salutes fired, and the air 
of La Gloria resounded with cheers. The 
Cubans came over from their camp, and after 
the Americans had got through, started in 
for a celebration of their own. This was 
partly because of their fondness for General 
Van der Voort and partly on account of their 
childish love of noise and display. The colo- 
nists became convinced that night that if the 
Cubans ever become American citizens they 
will be equal to all of the Fourth of July 
requirements. The noise they made double 
discounted that made by the colonists. They 
cheered and shouted and fired salutes by the 
hundred. They marched up and down the 
main street, singing and laughing and blow- 
ing conch shells. They freed Cuba over 
again, and had a rattling good time in doing 
it. It seemed as if the racket would never 
end, but about midnight they went jabbering 
back to their camp. It was the noisiest night 
in the history of La Gloria. But the " sugar 
riot" was averted, and never took place. 



CHAPTER VII. 
Adventures and Misadventures. 

Among the dozen women in the camp, 
the most striking figure was Mrs. Moller, a 
Danish widow, who came from one of the 
states, Pennsylvania, I believe. I cannot 
say exactly when she reached La Gloria, 
but she was one of the earliest of her sex to 
arrive, and achieved the distinction of build- 
ing the first house in the "city." Speaking 
of sex, it was not easy to determine that of 
Mrs. Moller upon a casual acquaintance. 
Slight of figure, with bronzed face and close- 
cut hair, she wore a boy's cap, blouse, trous- 
ers, a very short skirt, and rubber boots, 
while her belt fairly bristled with revolvers 
and knives. She was a quiet, imperturbable 
person, however, and it was difficult to get 
her to relate her adventures, which had been 
somewhat extraordinary. 

She first came into La Gloria from Palota, 
where she landed from a boat with no other 
company than her trunk. There was not a 
living person at or near Palota, so, deserting 



Adventures and Misadventures. 95 

her baggage, she started out afoot and alone, 
and attempted to make her way along the 
muddy and difficult trail nine miles to La 
Gloria. It was a hard road to travel, with 
scarcely a habitation along the way. Late 
in the afternoon she reached an inhabited 
shack, and the Cubans invited her to spend 
the night. Although weary, she declined 
the invitation, and pressed on. Darkness 
soon overtook her, but still she kept on 
through the dense woods. The trail was 
exceedingly rough, and she stumbled along 
among stumps, roots, and muddy gullies. 
Every few steps she fell down, and finally 
becoming exhausted, she was compelled to 
spend the night in the heart of the forest. 
She had no shelter whatever, and no means 
of making a fire. She sat in the woods all 
night, not being able to go to sleep, her 
only company being the mosquitoes. In the 
morning she found she had lost her way, but 
at last struck a Cuban trail, and was over- 
taken by a native horseman. He kindlv 
gave her a place in front of him on his pony, 
and thus she entered the youthful citv of La 
Gloria. 

Nor was this Mrs. Moller's last adventure. 
She had an extraordinary faculty for getting 



96 Pioneering in Cuba. 

into trouble. Her trunk, which she had aban- 
doned at Palota, was rifled by some one, 
probably a wandering Cuban, and she spent 
much time in traveling about the country 
seeking to get the authorities to hunt up the 
offender and recover the stolen goods. On 
one occasion she started in the early evening 
to walk into La Gloria from the port. When 
she had got about half way darkness came on 
and she lost the indistinct trail across the 
savanna. Not daring to go further, she 
roosted in a tree all night. Her idea in tak- 
ing to the tree was that the mosquitoes would 
be less numerous at such an elevation, but 
she did not escape them altogether. Nothing 
serious happened and she turned up in camp 
all right the next morning. Mrs. Moller had 
no better luck when she rode than when she 
walked. At one time, while driving from Las 
Minas to Nuevitas in a wagon with another 
colonist, the team went over an embankment 
in the darkness and was so badly damaged 
that she and her companion were obliged to 
walk into Nuevitas, twelve or fifteen miles 
distant, along the railroad track. The jour- 
ney was neither easy nor pleasant. 

But Mrs. Moller had both pluck and enter- 
prise. She it was who built the first house in 



Adventures and Misadventures. 97 

La Gloria, a log cabin far up in the woods on 
Central avenue. It was put up in the latter 
part of January. She employed an American 
and a Cuban to construct it, and had it cov- 
ered with a canvas roof. She personally 




First House in La Gloria. 

supervised the erection of the house, and 
when it was done planted sunflowers, banana 
trees, pineapples, etc., around it. She lived 
here alone for some time before she had any 
near neighbors. Mrs. Moller also enjoyed 



98 Pioneering in Cuba. 

the distinction of owning the first cow, the 
first calf, and the first goat in La Gloria. As 
these animals roamed at large much of the 
time and were noisy, disorderly beasts, they 
were anything but popular in the colony. 
They were so destructive to planted things, 
that the threats to plant the cow and her 
unhappy offspring were numerous and oft- 
repeated, and the subject was discussed in 
more than one meeting of the Pioneer Associa- 
tion. It was said that Mrs. Moller had come 
to La Gloria with the idea of starting a dairy 
business, and it was further reported that she 
had taken the first prize for dairy butter at 
the World's Fair in Chicago. But the dairy 
did not materialize, and La Gloria long went 
butterless. 

It was a standing wonder with us that the 
Rural Guards did not disarm Mrs. Moller. 
They frequently met her as she traveled 
about the country, and must have seen that 
she carried deadly weapons. They did not 
relieve her of them, however, but the Ameri- 
can authorities at La Gloria finally forbade 
her to wear her revolvers about the camp. 
It must not be thought that Mrs. Moller 
always dressed as I have described her. On 
state occasions, such as Sunday services and 



Adventures and Misadventures. 99 

the regular Saturday night meetings of the 
Pioneer Association, she doffed her blue blouse 
and rubber boots, and came out with a jacket 
and the most immaculate starched and stiff 
bloomers, gorgeous in light and bright colors. 
At such times she was a wonder to behold. 
Mrs. Moller spoke broken English, and was 
not greatly given to talking except when she 
had business on hand. 

But if Mrs. Moller was the most striking 
figure in camp, the most ubiquitous and irre- 
pressible person was Mrs. Horn of South 
Bend, Indiana. She was one of the earliest 
arrivals in La Gloria, coming in with two 
sons and a daughter, but without her hus- 
band. Mrs. Horn was a loud-voiced, good- 
natured woman, who would have tipped the 
scales at about two hundred and fifty pounds, 
provided there had been any scales in La 
Gloria to be tipped. She reached La Gloria 
before the Yarmouth colonists, but how is 
something of a mystery. It is known, how- 
ever, that she waded in through miles of mud 
and water, and was nothing daunted by the 
experience. Never for a moment did she 
think of turning back, and when she had 
pitched her tent, she announced in a high, 
shrill voice that penetrated the entire camp, 



ioo Pioneering in Cuba. 

that she was in the colony to stay. She had 
lived in South Bend, Ind., and thought she 
could stand anything that might come to her 
in La Gloria. 

Mrs. Horn claimed to be able to do any- 
thing and go anywhere that a man could, and 
no one was inclined to dispute the assertion. 
She had the temperament which never gets 
"rattled," and when she woke up one night 
and found a brook four inches deep and a foot 
wide running through her tent she was not in 
the least disconcerted. In the morning she 
used it to wash her dishes in. She continued 
to make use of it until it dried up a day or 
two later. One of Mrs. Horn's distinctions 
was that she was the first woman to take a 
sea bath at Port La Gloria, walking the round 
trip of eight miles to do so. She was both a 
good walker and a good swimmer. She was 
delighted with La Gloria and Cuba. Her 
sons were nearly man-grown, and her daugh- 
ter was about twelve years of age. It was 
one of the diversions of the camp to hear 
Mrs. Horn call Edna at a distance of a quar- 
ter of a mile or more. Mrs. Horn may un- 
hesitatingly be set down as a good colonist. 
Though at times too voluble, perhaps, she was 
energetic, patient, kind-hearted, and generous. 



Adventures and Misadventures. 101 

When the colonists who came on the Tar- 
mouth first arrived in La Gloria many of them 
were eager for hunting and fishing, but the 
sport of hunting wild hogs very soon received 
a setback. An Englishman by the name of 
Curtis and two or three others went out to 
hunt for big game. After a rough and weary 
tramp of many miles, they suddenly came in 
sight of a whole drove of hogs. They had 
traveled so far without seeing any game, 
that they could scarcely believe their eyes, 
but they recovered themselves and blazed 
away. The result was that they trudged 
into camp some hours later triumphantly 
shouldering the carcasses of three young 
pigs. The triumph of the hunters was short- 
lived, however. The next morning an in- 
dignant Cuban rode into camp with fire in his 
eye and a keen edge on his machete. He 
was in search of the "Americanos" who 
shot his pigs. He soon found them and 
could not be mollified until he was paid 
eight dollars in good American money. 
The next day the same Cuban rode into 
camp with a dead pig on his horse in front 
of him. This was larger than the others, 
and the man wanted seventeen dollars for it. 
Curtis, et al., did not know whether they 



102 Pioneering in Cuba. 

shot the animal or not, but they paid the 
" hombre " twelve dollars. The following 
day the Cuban again appeared bringing 
another deceased porker. This was a full 
grown hog, and its owner fixed its value at 
twenty dollars. Again he got his money, 
and the carcass as well. How much longer 
the Cuban would have continued to bring in 
dead pigs, had he not been made to under- 
stand that he would get no more money, 
cannot be stated. To this day, Curtis and 
his friends do not know whether they actually 
killed all those pigs. What they are sure of 
is that there is small difference in the appear- 
ance of wild hogs and those which the 
Cubans domesticate. And this is why the 
hunting of wild hogs became an unpopular 
sport in La Gloria. 

The colony had its mild excitements now 
and again. One evening there was long 
continued firing of guns and blowing of 
conch shells in that corner of the camp 
where the surveyors had their tents. Inquir- 
ing the cause, we learned that three sur- 
veyors were lost in the woods and that the 
noise was being made to inform them of the 
location of the camp. The men, who had 
come to Cuba as colonists, had separated 



Adventures and Misadventures. 103 

from the surveying party just before dark 
and attempted to make a short cut back to 
the camp. They had been at work in a low, 
wet section two or three miles northwest of 
the town, and their progress homeward was 
necessarily slow. They had not proceeded 
far when it became perfectly dark and it was 
borne in upon them that " cutting across 
lots" in a Cuban forest was quite a different 
matter from doing it in some of the States. 
They were obliged to suspend travel and 
hold up for the night. Although they could 
faintly hear the reports of the guns in the 
camp they were unable to make their way in 
through the thick woods. The men were 
without food or anything for shelter. Having 
an axe with them, they chopped down a tree, 
to keep them from the wet ground, and at- 
tempted to sleep upon its branches. The 
hard bed and the numerous mosquitoes were 
not conducive to sleep, but the tired fellows 
finally succumbed. When they awoke in 
the morning, one of them found that he had 
slipped down and was lying with his legs in 
the water. Not long after daylight they 
came into camp wet, tired, and hungry. It 
was no uncommon thing for surveyors to get 
lost, but nothing serious ever resulted. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Cubans. 

I am often asked, " How did you get 
along with the Cubans?" very much as in- 
quiry might be made as to how we got along 
with the Apaches, or with the Modocs ; and 
one man said, decidedly, " I think I might like 
Cuba, but I could never stand those Cubans." 
He had never seen a Cuban, I believe. 

We got along with the Cubans very well 
indeed, much better than with some of our 
neighbors in the States. Judging from our 
experience with the inhabitants of the pro- 
vince of Puerto Principe, there are no better 
people on the face of the earth to " get along 
with" than the Cubans. We found them, 
almost without exception, courteous, social, 
kind, hospitable, and honest. Indeed, it 
sometimes seemed as if there was nothing 
they would not do for us that lay within their 
power. They appeared to appreciate kind 
and fair treatment, and to be eager to return 
the same to us. Those we came in contact 
with were mainly of the humbler classes, 



The Cubans. 105 



but we saw nothing to indicate that those 
higher in the social scale were less friendly 
and considerate. The Cubans we met 
seemed to like the Americans, and the col- 
onists certainly reciprocated the feeling. 
After a residence of nearly a year among 
them, Hon. Peter E. Park emphatically 
declared that there was as little meanness in 
the Cubans as in any class of people he had 
ever fallen in with, and many other Ameri- 
cans in La Gloria echoed this sentiment. 

I can easily conceive that under abuse the 
Cubans would exhibit some very disagreeable 
and dangerous qualities, but what people of 
spirit does not under such circumstances? 
Self-control is not a marked characteristic of 
the Cuban, and he is apt to revenge himself 
upon his enemy in any way he can at the 
earliest opportunity. But with kind and just 
treatment, he is your friend, and very good 
friends we found these Cubans — we of the 
colony at La Gloria. Among themselves they 
are an easy-going, good-natured, talkative 
people, and they display these same qualities 
to foreigners who approach them rightly. 
Rude they never are, but they sometimes show 
a childish sullenness when offended. Strong 
in their likes and dislikes, they often exhibit 



106 Pioneering in Cuba. 

no little devotion to those whom they esteem 
or respect, and I believe them to be quite as 
reliable and trustworthy as the average among 
the inhabitants of the tropics. I have heard 
it said that the Cubans of some of the other 
provinces do not compare favorably with those 
of Puerto Principe, which may be true ; yet I 
cannot help thinking that the race as a whole 
has been much maligned. Under a strong, 
just government I believe they would prove 
to be excellent citizens, but I do not expect 
that they will soon develop much administra- 
tive ability. 

Some writers and travelers have done the 
Cubans justice, but many, obviously have not. 
The soldiers of the United States army have 
an unconcealed dislike for them, which the 
Cubans, naturally enough, ardently recipro- 
cate. Perhaps the soldiers expect too much 
homage from a people upon whom they feel 
they conferred the priceless boon of liberty. 
At all events, in many cases where there has 
been bad blood between the two, it is easy to 
believe that the soldiers were the most to 
blame, for the Cubans as we met them were 
anything but aggressive. Many a Yankee 
could take lessons of them in the noble art of 
minding one's own business. 



The Cubans. 107 



So much for the character of the Cubans. 
Less can be said for their style of living, which 
in the rural districts and some parts of the 
cities is primitive to the verge of squalor. In 
the country around La Gloria it was no un- 
common thing to find a Cuban who owned 
hundreds or thousands of acres of land — most 
of it uncultivated, to be sure — living in a small, 
palm-thatched hut with no other floor than the 
hard red soil. The house would be furnished 
in the scantiest way, a rude wooden table, a 
few chairs, and perhaps a rough bench or two. 
Often there would be no beds other than ham- 
mocks, no stoves, and sometimes not even a 
fireplace of any description. The meals, such 
as they were, would be cooked in the open 
front of the shack over a fire usually built on 
the ground. Occasionally the enclosed room 
which formed the rear of the shack would 
have an uneven board floor, but there were 
never any carpets or rugs, or even a matting 
of any sort. Of course there was no paint or 
varnish, and very little color about the place 
save the brown of the dry thatch on the roof 
and the brick-red grime from the soil which 
colored, or discolored, everything it came in 
contact with like a pigment. This red stain 
was astonishingly in evidence everywhere. 



108 Pioneering in Cuba. 

It was to be seen upon the poles which sup- 
ported the hut, on all -of the furniture, upon 
the clothing of the inmates, and even upon 
their persons. Tt looked like red paint, and 
evidently was about as hard to get off. The 
huge wheels of the bullock carts seemed to be 
painted with it, and the mahogany and cedar 
logs hauled out of the forest took on the color. 
In a walking trip to the city of Puerto Prin- 
cipe I passed through a region about twenty 
miles from La Gloria where nearly all the 
trees along the road were colored as evenly 
for about two feet from the ground as if their 
trunks had been carefully painted red. My 
companions and I pondered over this matter 
for some time and finally arrived at the opinion 
that wild hogs, or possibly a large drove of 
domesticated swine, had rolled in the red dust 
of the highway and then rubbed up against 
the neighboring trees. They were colored 
to about the height of a hog's back. This 
seemed to be the only reasonable explanation, 
and is undoubtedly the true one. This region 
was close to the Cubitas mountains, where the 
Cuban insurgents long had their capital and 
kept their cattle to supply the army in the field ; 
it may be that they had also large droves of 
hogs which roamed through the near-by coun- 
try. 



The Cubans. 109 



The Cuban homes as I found them in the 
rural districts around La Gloria were not 
ornamented with books and pictures. Some- 
times, to be sure, there would be a few litho- 
graphs tacked up, and I had reason to believe 
that the houses were not wholly destitute of 
books, but they were never in evidence. The 
things that were always in evidence were 
children, chickens, and dogs, and often pigs 
and goats. There was a democracy about the 
domestic economy of the household that must 
have been highly flattering to the chickens, 
dogs, pigs, etc. They always had all the 
rights and privileges that the children or even 
the adults had. I have seen a two-year-old 
child and a cat eating contentedly out of the 
same dish. 

But if the children were always in evidence, 
their clothing oftentimes was not. Nothing is 
more common in Cuba than to see young chil- 
dren in unabashed nakedness. Their nudity 
is complete, and their unconsciousness absolute. 
In nature's garb they toddle along some of the 
streets of the cities, and in the rural districts 
they may be seen in the same condition in and 
around their humble homes. Naked babies 
lie kicking in hammocks or more quietly in 
their mothers' arms, and naked children run 




Frank J. O'Reilly. 
(One of the Early\Colonists.) 



The Cubans. 1 1 1 



about at play. I once stopped at a shack to 
get coffee, and while waiting in the open front 
of the "casa" for its preparation, was sur- 
rounded by a bevy of bright little children 
who had neglected to put on their clothes. At 
last it seemed to occur to a pretty four-year- 
old girl that she was not properly attired for 
company, so she sat down on the dirt floor 
and pulled on a slipper ! She appeared some- 
what disturbed at not being able to find its 
mate, and hunted quite a while for it, but 
finally gave up the search and accepted the 
situation, evidently concluding that a single 
shoe was clothing enough in which to receive 
even such distinguished guests as " Ameri- 
canos." With the adult members of the 
family, also, this nakedness of the children 
passes as a matter of course. The climate is 
so mild that clothing is not demanded, but I 
caught myself wondering if insects never 
bite Cubans. 

The Cubans are rather an abstemious peo- 
ple. They care little for their food and are 
not given to excessive drinking. Those in 
the country around La Gloria lived chiefly on 
pork, stewed beans, rice, and boniatos (sweet 
potatoes). It is a mistaken idea that they do 
not eat much meat ; they eat a great deal of 



ii2 Pioneering in Cuba. 

pork in all forms, and seem to be equally fond 
of wild hog and the domesticated animal. As 
a matter of fact, there is small difference be- 
tween the two. Both are " razor backs," and 
have practically no fat on them. The flesh 
tastes about as much like beef as it does like 
the fatted pork of New England swine. The 
Cubans keep a good deal of poultry, but from 
personal observation I cannot say that they 
eat much of it. The hens and the eggs are 
small, but the former sell for one dollar 
apiece and the latter for about forty cents a 
dozen. The Cubans in the rural parts of 
the province of Puerto Principe eat very little 
beef, but this may be because it is not easy to 
get it, while lamb and mutton are unheard of. 
The Cubans make excellent coffee of their 
own raising, which they invariably drink with- 
out milk. Coffee alone forms the early 
breakfast, the substantial breakfast being at 
ten o'clock, and the dinner (la comida) at three 
or four o'clock. - There is nothing to eat after 
this, but there may be coffee in the evening. 
In fact, the Cubans are liable to drink coffee 
at any hour of the day, and they always wind 
up their two regular meals with it. They are 
fond of sweets, particularly a sort of preserved 
orange (dulce naranja). It may be that they 



The Cubans. 113 



eat fresh fruit, but when I do not know, for I 
never saw a Cuban eating an orange, a ban- 
ana, or a pineapple. These they sold to us at 
rather excessive prices. The Cubans nearly 
all drink, but very little at a time, and rarely 
get drunk. Their favorite drinks are wine, 
rum, and brandy (aguardiente). In a holi- 
day week in the city of Puerto Principe, the 
only two men I saw intoxicated were Ameri- 
cans. One was a soldier, the other a camp 
follower. 

The Cubans of the rural districts did not 
appear to be religious, although there was apt 
to be a rude wooden cross fixed in the ground 
in front of their dwellings, possibly with a 
superstitious idea of thus averting evil. These 
crosses were nothing more than a slender pole, 
eight or ten feet high, stripped of its bark, 
with a cross piece near the top. They were 
dry and weather beaten, and looked more like 
a roost for birds than a religious emblem. 
Smaller wooden crosses were to be found in 
the little graveyards that we occasionally came 
upon. These seldom contained more than 
two or three graves, which were unmarked by 
any visible name or inscription. In the vil- 
lages there were, of course, larger cemeteries, 
but the country I am writing of was very 



H4 Pioneering - in Cuba. 

sparsely settled, averaging scarcely more than 
one or two families to the square mile. 

The natives appeared to have very few 
amusements. They hunted somewhat, and in 
the villages and cities had occasional dances 
of rather a weird character. They had cock 
fights, too, I suppose, but these did not seem 
to be a feature of the country life about us. 
The rural Cuban spends much of his time in 
riding about the country on his patient and 
intelligent pony, buying supplies and dispos- 
ing of his small produce. When they till 
their land is a mystery, for they never seem 
to be at work upon it. In fact, very little was 
tilled at all in the region about La Gloria. It 
was no uncommon thing to find a man owning 
hundreds of acres, with less than one acre 
under cultivation. This condition was usually 
explained by the statement that everything 
had been killed out during the Ten Years' 
War, and that the natives were too poor to 
again put their land under cultivation. This 
was a half-truth, at least, but Cuban indiffer- 
ence must have had something to do with it. 
One of the La Gloria colonists once asked an 
intelligent and good-appearing elderly Cuban 
why he did not cultivate more of his land. 
" What is the use?" was the reply. " When 



The Cubans. 115 



I need money I pick off some bananas and 
sell them. I get for them twenty or twenty- 
five dollars, which lasts me a long time. 
When I need more money, I pick more bana- 
nas." This is the common Cuban view. 
His natural indifference, combined with the 
exactions of Spanish government, has kept 
his mind free from any thought of making 
provision for the future. 

The reader should bear in mind that I have 
been describing the people of the province of 
Puerto Principe, and mainly of the rural por- 
tions thereof. I am well aware that in the 
more thickly settled and more prosperous 
provinces fine country houses are sometimes 
to be found, and the people generally may 
live somewhat differently and perhaps better, 
but I believe I have faithfully pictured the 
typical Cuban as he exists to-day in the coun- 
try districts of Puerto Principe, the fertile and 
unfortunate province which has probably suf- 
fered morje from the ravages of war in the 
last thirty years than any other province in 
the island. It was completely despoiled dur- 
ing the Ten Years' War, and has never re- 
covered. Its deserted plantations are now 
being reclaimed, largely by Americans, and 
ere long will blossom forth with luscious fruits 
and other valuable products. 



n6 Pioneering in Cuba. 

The slight acquaintance which I had with 
the Cubans of the cities of Puerto Principe 
and Nuevitas led me to the belief that they 
did not differ greatly from the more intel- 
ligent inhabitants of the country sections. 
Among the half hundred Cubans who worked 
for the company and occupied a camp at La 
Gloria, were many from the cities of the 
province, the others coming from small towns 
and villages. Most of them had served in 
the Cuban army — the "iVrmy of Liberation," 
as it was called. Though these men had but 
few comforts, they appeared to be happy 
and contented ; they were almost invariably 
peaceable and good-humored. The Ameri- 
cans liked these " Cu-bi-ans " — as some of 
the colonists persisted in calling them — and 
entire harmony prevailed. It was amusing 
to me when we first arrived to hear some of 
the Western colonists inadvertently speak of 
them as "the Indians," owing, I suppose, to 
their primitive mode of living. Columbus 
called them by the same name when, on the 
28th of October, 1492, he landed on the 
island at a point not twenty miles from 
what is now Port La Gloria, — but within the 
last four hundred years the appellation of 
"Cuban" has become well known through- 



The Cubans. 



117 



out the world. The Cubans must work out 
their own destiny, but I am satisfied that 
they will steadily progress in the scale of 
civilization. 




CHAPTER IX. 

Steps of Progress. 

The opening of the month of February 
found the colonists in excellent health and 
good spirits, and hard at work on their land 
or for the company. The La Gloria post- 
office had been established, church services 
were held regularly in a large tent, and the 
La Gloria Pioneer Association had been 
organized and held its regular meeting on 
Saturday evening of each week. Town lots 
were being cleared, gardens planted, and 
pineapple plants set out as fast as the land 
could be prepared and the "suckers" 
obtained. 

Through the active efforts of General Van 
der Voort, a United States post-office was 
established immediately after his arrival. 
The general held the commission as post- 
master, and selected for his assistant, Col. 
John F. Early of Wilber, Nebraska, who had 
been postmaster of his town before coming 
to Cuba. The general being otherwise en- 
gaged, most of the actual work of the office 



Steps of Progress. 119 

fell upon Colonel Early, who was well quali- 
fied to perform it. Some months later, Van 
der Voort resigned the postmastership, and 
Early was promoted to the head of the office. 
The post-office first occupied a small space 
in headquarters tent, but was soon moved to 
a tent by itself near at hand. Here it re- 
mained until the fall of 1900, when it was 
moved into a new wooden building con- 
structed for it on Central avenue. From 
the first the office did considerable business, 
which steadily increased. The colonists 
wrote and received many letters, but were 
loud in their complaints of the irregularity 
and infrequency of the mails. In a measure, 
this faultfinding was justified, but the philo- 
sophical were more patient and felt that the 
colony was lucky to have a post-office at all. 
The remedy was slow in coming, but the 
mail facilities gradually improved. At first 
the letters were collected at the office in a 
wooden box, but before many weeks had 
passed a regulation metallic receptacle, 
painted red and marked fc * U. S. Mail," 
was placed in front of the tent. I well 
remember the shout that went up from the 
assembled colonists when this reminder of 
home and civilization was brought in on 



120 Pioneering in Cuba. 

horseback from the port by the mail carrier. 
It seemed almost like having a glimpse of 
the old home. 

The regular sworn mail carrier between 
Port La Gloria and the post-office was Sefior 
Ciriaco Rivas, familiarly known as " the old 
sefior " among the colonists, by whom he 
was much beloved. He was a true-hearted 
gentleman and a brave soldier, being a vet- 
eran of the Ten Years' War and the later con- 
flict. He was one of the best friends that the 
colonists had, and was their guest and com- 
panion on many occasions, and sometimes 
their host. Sefior Rivas owned a large tract 
of land in the neighborhood, but lived with 
his family in the Cuban camp at La Gloria. 
While scorning to take pay from individuals 
for his services, he assisted the colonists in 
manifold ways. In the summer of 1900 he 
was named by the government as alcalde 
(magistrate) of La Gloria and the country 
for five miles around, but on the 15th day of 
the following September he died at Nuevitas, 
lamented alike by Cubans and Americans. 

Besides attending to his post-office duties, 
Colonel Early represented large land in- 
terests in the colony and gave much time to 
work in connection therewith. He was one 



Steps of Progress. 121 



of the most enthusiastic of the colonists, 
being delighted with the country and its 
prospects. Fond of hunting and fishing, a 
lover of birds, trees, and flowers, versatile in 
his tastes and accomplishments, Colonel 
Early found Cuba much to his liking, and 
complained of nothing save the " hell-hens," 
as he irreverently called the despised jejines 
(sand flies). He was a veteran of the Civil 
War, and had been something of a politician 
in his Nebraska home. 

Unlike the mining camps of our great 
West, La Gloria was a moral and orderly 
town. This was largely due to the fact that 
General Van der Voort insisted that no 
liquor should be sold, a prohibition which 
was rigidly enforced. The result was that 
there was peace and quiet, and no crime save 
a few small thefts. Very little policing was 
necessary. At the beginning the police force 
consisted of Mr. George H. Matthews of 
Asbury Park, N. J., whose only duty ap- 
peared to be a daily tour of the camp in the 
early evening. Chief of Police Matthews 
lived in a tent at the upper end of the camp. 
When darkness came on he would light his 
little lantern and " go down the line," as he 
called his nightly trip down the main street 



Steps of Progress. 123, 

and back. The whole operation, including 
lighting the lantern, occupied about twenty 
minutes. Mr. Matthews also plied the trade 
of a barber, charging twenty-five cents for a 
shave. It was finally decided that if anybody 
was robbing the colonists, he was the man,, 
and the police force was abolished altogether. 
Soon after Mr. Matthews and his wife re- 
turned to their home in Asbury Park. They 
were well liked, and their departure was 
regretted. A little later there were some 
actual thefts, generallv attributed to negroes 
who lurked about the camp, and Eugene 
Kezar, from Barre, Vermont, was put on as 
night watchman. He performed this duty 
faithfully, as he did every duty which de- 
volved upon him, and the thefts soon ceased.. 
Much of the time Kezar was in the employ 
of the company in the daytime about the 
camp, supervising the erection of tents,. 
taking care of property, and performing 
manifold duties in the interest of the company 
and the colonists. 

The first church service in La Gloria was- 
held on January 14, conducted by the Rev. 
A. E. Seddon of Atlanta, Ga., a minister of 
the Christian church, who was one of the 
colonists who came on the first Yarmouth ~ 



124 Pioneering in Cuba. 

It was attended by a large proportion of the 
colonists. Mr. Seddon was a good preacher 
and a cultivated man, but did not long 
remain at La Gloria. Becoming interested 
in another proposed colony, he took his 
departure from La Gloria soon after the 
allotment of the land. Next the Rev. J. W. 
Harris of Vermont preached for one Sunday, 
but he also took an early departure. At 
about this time the venerable Dr. William I. 
Gill of Asbury Park, N. J., joined the colony, 
and conducted church services for some 
weeks. His health not being good, he was 
forced to give up regular preaching. For a 
time the congregation was without an officiat- 
ing clergyman, but sermons were read each 
Sunday by some layman, and a Sabbath 
school was regularly held. With the spring 
came two ministers together, the Rev. James 
G. Stuart of London, Canada, and the Rev. 
W. A. Nicholas of Huntington, West Vir- 
ginia. Mr. Stuart's stay at this time was 
temporary, but he preached one Sunday to 
the edification of a good-sized audience. 
When his leave of absence expired he re- 
turned to his far away home in Canada, but 
before sailing he expressed himself as being 
greatly pleased with La Gloria, and made 



Steps of Progress, 125. 

known his intention to make it his residence 
at some future time. He left money to have 
a large tract of land cleared and cultivated. 
Mr. Stuart had been the owner of an orange 
grove in California, and was satisfied that the 
fruit would do finely in the soil around La 
Gloria. He was highly enthusiastic in his 
praise of the country. Mr. Nicholas, a 
minister of the Baptist church, succeeded 
Mr. Stuart in the La Gloria pulpit, and 
preached several weeks. He then returned 
to West Virginia for the purpose of bringing 
his family to Cuba to establish a permanent 
home. In June he brought his wife and 
children to La Gloria and resumed his reli- 
gious teaching. He has since preached 
regularly, and is held in high respect by the 
colonists. Mrs. Nicholas is also very popular 
in the colony. Mr. Nicholas is delighted with 
Cuba, and is enjoying greatly improved 
health. Besides the preaching and Sunday- 
school, weekly prayer-meetings, teachers' 
meetings, and choir meetings have been held 
in the colony from its earliest days. 

The first organization of the colonists, and 
the force which had most to do with shaping 
the course of affairs in the early life of the 
colony, was the La Gloria Pioneer Associa- 




Dr. William P. Peirce. 



Steps of Progress. 127 

tion. At a mass meeting in front of head- 
quarters tent on the 18th of January, Dr. 
W. P. Peirce of Hoopeston, 111., was made 
temporary chairman, and R. C. Bourdette of 
Dexter, Kansas, temporary secretary. James 
M. Adams, D. E. Lowell, and R. C. Bour- 
dette were appointed a committee to draft a 
constitution and by-laws. At a meeting Jan- 
uary 27 the committee reported a constitu- 
tion and by-laws, which were adopted, and 
the following officers were elected for a term 
of six months : Dr. W. P. Peirce, president ; 
D. E. Lowell, vice-president; R. G. Barner, 
secretary ; Col. Thomas H. Maginniss, treas- 
urer ; E. B. Newsom, W. G. Spiker, J. A. 
Florence, W. M. Carson, and Rev. William 
I. Gill, executive board. The president, 
vice-president, secretary, and treasurer were 
members of the executive board ex-ojjicio. 

Dr. Peirce, the president, was one of the 
ablest of the colonists, a man of consequence 
in his state, and possessed of both mental 
and financial resources. Genial, kindly, and 
humorous, he w r as much liked by his fellow- 
colonists, and made an admirable presiding 
officer for the association. He had entire faith 
in the ultimate success of the colony, and did 
much to advance its welfare. Mr. Lowell, 



128 Pioneering in Cuba, 

the vice-president, had been a successful fruit 
grower in Florida and a leading citizen in that 
section of the state where he resided. He 
was one of the first of the colonists to reach 
La Gloria, coming in with his wife before the 
first Yarmouth party arrived. He was a sub- 
stantial and practical man, and a valuable 
prop to the colony, wherein he was popular 
and influential. Mr. Barner, the secretary, 
was a young man from Philadelphia, and was 
one of the colonists who came on the first 
Yarmouth. He was an expert stenographer 
and typewriter, and a man of good judgment 
and untiring industry. For a time he worked 
upon the land, but was soon taken into the 
president's office, where he proved to be a 
faithful and efficient clerk and secretary. 
Well liked among his brother and sister col- 
onists, he was given numerous responsible 
positions as new organizations were formed. 
Colonel Maginniss, the treasurer, was also 
from Philadelphia, and has been before al- 
luded to as the superintendent of the camp. 
His duties as treasurer of the^association were 
not arduous, but he performed good service 
as chairman of the committee on transporta- 
tion. The other members of the executive 
board were leading colonists, and intelligent 
and practical men. 



Steps of Progress. 129 

The executive board appointed the follow- 
ing committees : Transportation, Col. Thomas 
H. Maginniss (chairman), J. A. Florence,. 
S. L. Benham, W. P. Hartzell, Thomas R. 
Geer — the latter resigning, he was replaced 
by James M. Adams ; supplies, E. B. New- 
som (chr.), D. E. Lowell, W. G. Spiker y 
E. F. Rutherford, M. T. Holman ; sanitation, 
Dr. W. P. Peirce (chr.), G. A. Libby, M.T. 
Jones, W. S. Dunbar, G. H. Matthews; 
manufactures, D. L. Carleton (chr.), W. L. 
Yard, J. A. Anderson, J. C. Kelly, W. H. 
Gruver ; history of the colony, James M. 
Adams (chr.), A. E. Seddon, Rev. William 
I. Gill, M. A. C. Neff, F. X. Hovora ; legal 
affairs, Gen. Paul Van der Voort (chr.), Col. 
Thomas H. Maginniss, Capt. Joseph Chace, 
W. M. Carson, J. F. Early ; education and 
religious observance, Mrs. Andrews (chr.), 
Mrs. D. E. Lowell, Mrs. W. G. Spiker, Mrs. 
William I. Gill, Mrs. M. A. C. Neff; village 
improvements, M. A. C. Neff (chr.), D. E. 
Lowell, B. F. Seibert, E. B. Newsom, J. C. 
Florence, Peter Larsen, H. E. Mosher, S. M. 
Van der Voort, James Peirce, Mrs. Clara 
Broome, Mrs. J. A. Horn, Mrs. G. H. 
Matthews. Mrs. Andrews did not remain in 
La Gloria, and hence never served on the 
9 



130 Pioneering in Cuba. 

committee on education and religious observ- 
ance ; Mrs. D. E. Lowell acted as chairman 
and directed the work of the committee with 
zeal and intelligence. As time went on, 
numerous other vacancies occurred in the 
several committees, but these were filled and 
the work was not retarded. Most of the 
committees were more or less active and 
accomplished as much as could reasonably 
be expected considering the many obstacles 
encountered. If the net results accomplished 
by the association at this early stage seem 
small, it should be remembered that it was no 
slight task to hold the colony together in the 
face of natural obstructions, irritating delays, 
and disheartening disappointments. All these 
things the colonists had to encounter, and the 
Pioneer Association performed a great work 
in banding the settlers together, staying their 
courage and preventing a stampede in the 
darkest hours, and in keeping things moving, 
slowly though it may have been, in the right 
direction. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive 
what the colonists would have done at the 
beginning without the cooperative aid afforded 
by this organization. Practically the whole 
colony belonged to it during the first few 
months of its existence. 



Steps of Progress. 131 

The meetings were held every Saturday 
night and were always well attended. They 
were valued not only for utilitarian purposes, 
but as almost the sole amusement enjoyed by 
the colonists during the week. These meet- 
ings supplied the place of the theatre, the 
lyceum, and social festivities, and some of the 
women were heard to say that they looked 
forward the whole week to this regular gath- 
ering. Subjects of absorbing interest always 
came up, the speaking was quite good and 
never tedious, and humorous and witty remarks 
were very often heard and fully appreciated. 
The ludicrous always appealed to the audience 
keenly. Many of the colonists participated 
in the speaking, and the discussions were in- 
variably good natured. The speakers were 
sure of close attention and generous treat- 
ment from their auditors, even from those who 
might disagree with them. The brotherly 
feeling which pervaded the colony was always 
manifest at these gatherings. Some of the 
Cubans would often attend, and more than 
once a Spaniard was in the audience. It was 
a strange sight, one of these meetings. In 
the dim light of two or three lanterns, the 
colonists would be grouped together under a 
shelter tent, some sitting on rude wooden 



132 Pioneering in Cuba. 

benches and others standing. Those on the 
outskirts were as often under the stars as 
under the tent. Both the audience and the 
surroundings were picturesque, albeit the 
whole effect was suggestive of a primitive life 
which few of the colonists had before experi- 
enced. The scene is one that is not likely 
ever to be forgotten by those who participated 
in it. 

In July, 1900, the Pioneer Association 
elected new officers, as follows : President, 
D. E. Lowell ; vice-president, John Latham ; 
secretary, William M. Carson ; treasurer, 
J. R. P. de les Derniers. By this time new 
and more wieldy organizations had sprung 
up which took much of the practical work 
from the association, the latter becoming more 
of a reminiscence than a potent force. It is 
still, however, a factor in the social life of 
La Gloria. 



CHAPTER X. 

Events Important and Otherwise. 

On the last day of January I became pri- 
vate secretary to President Van der Voort, 
serving in that capacity until my return to the 
States nearly four months later. This position 
brought me into close and intimate contact 
with all of the colonists, and to no small ex- 
tent I shared their joys and woes. I was 
made the recipient of their confidences, and 
was sometimes able, I believe, to make some- 
what smoother the rather thorny paths they 
had to travel. When I was unable to do this, 
it was never from lack of full sympathy with 
their trials and hardships. I cannot be too 
emphatic in saying that never in my life have 
I met an aggregation of men and women who 
were more honest, good-natured, patient, and 
reasonable. To me, personally, they invari- 
ably extended the kindest consideration, and 
so, for that matter, did the officers of the com- 
pany. The nucleus for the first American 
colony in Cuba was beyond all question a 
good and substantial one. 



Important and Otherwise. 135 



About the middle of February Gen. Van 
der Voort moved into his new Cuban house, 
which had been constructed for him by Cuban 
workmen in an open space ninetv or one hun- 
dred yards back from the main street of the 
camp. The house and most of the tents con- 
stituting the camp were on the company's 
reservation just north of the front line of the 
town. As fast as the colonists got their town 
lots cleared they moved on to them, but their 
places in the reservation camp were often 
taken by new-comers. 

The general's palm house, or shack, was 
an ingenious and interesting piece of work. 
The Cubans exercised all their marvelous 
skill in its construction, with highly creditable 
results. When completed it was water tight, 
and cool, comfortable, and picturesque. The 
house contained two good-sized rooms, an 
enclosed bedroom at the back and an open 
apartment at the front used for an office and 
reception-room. Until a conventional board 
floor was laid by an "Americano" carpenter, 
there was not a nail in the entire structure. 
The upright poles, cross pieces, the ridgepole, 
and the rafters and cross rafters, were securely 
fastened together with tough bark and vines, 
while the roof was carefully thatched with 



136 Pioneering in Cuba, 

palm leaves. The latter were broad, fan- 
shaped leaves, several feet across at the 
widest part. Each had a stout stem two or 
three feet long. The leaves were laid upon 
the roof, beginning at the eaves, stems point- 
ing to the ridgepole. The leaves were care- 
fully lapped like shingles, and tightly lashed 
by the stems to the rafters and cross rafters. 
If a leak was discovered it was easy to close 
it by binding on another leaf. The leaves 
used came from what is commonly known as 
the dwarf or cabbage palm. Royal palm 
bark was used along the ridgepole. The 
back and sides of the house were of palm 
leaves, as was the front of the rear room, a 
door being cut through it. The front of the 
outer apartment was entirely open. The 
original floor was of wood cut from the royal 
palm, the rough and heavy boards, or planks, 
being fastened to cross* logs by wooden pins. 
Not proving entirely satisfactory, this floor, 
after a short time, was replaced by a more 
even one laid by a Yankee carpenter. This 
was the only change made by General Van 
der Voort in his Cuban house, with which he 
was greatly delighted. When new the pre- 
vailing color, inside and out. was a beautiful 
green, which soon turned to a yellowish 



Important and Otherwise. 137 

"brown. The change did not add to its beauty, 
but it still remained comfortable and pictur- 
esque. The cost of such a house in La Gloria 
was about fifty dollars. The general's house 
was wonderfully cool, as I can testify from 
personal experience, having occupied it daily 
for three months. 

Within a dozen yards of the general's 
house stood a historic landmark known as the 
" Lookout Tree," a gigantic tree used by the 
Cubans during the Ten Years' War and the 
late insurrection to watch for Spanish gun- 
boats that patroled the coast and for filibusters 
bringing arms and ammunition. It was at 
•or very near Port La Gloria — known to the 
Cubans as Viaro — that the celebrated Gussie 
landed her arms and ammunition for the 
Cubans, just after the intervention of the 
United States. Up through the "Lookout 
Tree" grow what appear to be two small and 
very straight trees, about three feet apart; 
actually, they are the downward shooting 
branches of a parasitic growth, taking root in 
the ground. The Cubans have utilized these 
for a ladder, cutting notches into them and 
fastening cross-pieces, or rungs, very securely 
with barbed wire. One may climb high into 
the big tree by this curious ladder, and from 



138 Pioneering in Cuba. 

the top a good view of the coast is obtained. 
After our arrival the tree was sometimes- 
brought into requisition in watching for the 
boat from Nuevitas, and the good climbers 
among the colonists often made the ascent 
merely for the satisfaction of performing the 
feat, which was not such an easy one as might 
appear, since the ladder did not reach to the 
top by fifteen or twenty feet. 

A space of about half an acre, chiefly in 
front of the house, General Van der Voort 
had plowed and planted for a garden. Veg- 
etables were sown in February and a little 
later a good number of pineapple plants, ba- 
nana, orange and coffee trees, etc., were set 
out. The vegetables began to come on in 
April, and the fruit trees and pineapples ex- 
hibited a thrifty growth from month to month. 
Small palm trees were also set out along the 
path leading from the house across the gar- 
den to Central avenue. The company had 
another and larger garden near by which was 
planted in the latter part of January. Some 
of its products were ready for the table in. 
March, and radishes even earlier. The soil 
of these gardens was not of the richest, being: 
red and containing oxide of iron ; but, for all 
that, seeds came up marvelously quick and 



Important and Otherwise. 139. 



plants grew well. I have known beans which 
were planted Saturday morning to be up on 
the following Monday. The soil of practi- 
cally all of the plantations and many of the 
town lots is very rich. 

On February 21, the day before Washing- 
ton's birthday, occurred the first birth in La 
Gloria, a lusty son being born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Olaf Olson. Mr. Olson was one of the 
most prosperous and progressive of the colo- 
nists, and his wife was a true pioneer. At the 
time of the birth the Olsons were living in a 
tent on their town lot on Market street, not 
far from Central avenue. Dr. Peirce was the 
officiating physician, and the infant developed 
as rapidly, in proportion, as plants in that 
tropical clime. It proved to be a remarkably 
healthy child. It w r as promptly named Olaf 
El Gloria Olson, and on the request of the 
Pioneer Association, the company generously 
made it a present of a town lot. Soon after 
the birth of the child, Mr. Olson moved into a 
house of his own construction. 

The weather at this time was good and. 
the temperature very comfortable. Ordinarily 
the thermometer registered throughout the 
day from 70 to 84 degrees of heat. The low- 
est temperature for January was 55 ; the: 



140 Pioneering in Cuba. 

highest, 91 . The lowest for February was 
5 6° ; the highest, 91 . The extremes of heat 
are nearly as great in winter as in summer, 
but there is much more variation. In summer 
the temperature ordinarily runs from about 
78 to 90 , but occasionally touches 94 , 
which is the highest I have ever known it to 
be in La Gloria. Even at this figure the heat 
is not oppressive. There is such a refreshing 
breeze night and day in Cuba that one does 
not suffer from the heat either in summer or 
winter. The climate is so fine at all seasons 
of the year, that to a New Englander it seems 
absolutely perfect. The colonists worked 
hard every day under the rays of the sun and 
suffered no ill effects. They came to the con- 
clusion that getting acclimated was a "cinch" 
in comparison with enduring the changing 
weather of the Northern states. 

During the first week in February the col- 
onists, such of them as were not otherwise 
employed, began the construction of a cor- 
duroy road over the worst places on the trail 
from La Gloria to the port. The work was 
under the supervision of Colonel Maginniss, 
and from twenty to thirty men labored daily 
for some time. While not of a permanent 
character, this work made the road more 



Important and Otherwise. 



passable for pedestrians and animals, and 
was of material aid in the hauling up of pro- 
visions and belated baggage. By the end 
of February most of us had got our trunks. 
The workers on the road were employed by 
the company, with the understanding that 
their wages should be credited upon their 
land payments, or upon the purchase of new 
land. This was satisfactory to the colonists, 
and many took advantage of the opportunity 
to acquire more town lots. Many other 
employes of the company also turned in their 
time for the purchase of plantation land or 
town lots. 

On the 19th of February the first well in 
La Gloria was opened. It was at the corner 
of Market street and Florida avenue, and 
was dug by a syndicate of colonists who lived 
in that vicinity. Good water was struck at 
a depth of about twelve feet. Many people 
used the water from this well, and a little 
later it was made considerably deeper. The 
well was square, and the ground was so hard 
at this point that it was found to be unneces- 
sary to stone it. Many other wells were dug; 
soon after, in all of which good water was 
found fifteen or twenty feet below the surface 
of the ground. 



a42 Pioneering in Cuba. 

Early in February, M. A. C. Neff, engi- 
neer and architect, who had been in charge 
of the town site survey, was transferred to 
the work of preparing real estate maps and 
books. Mr. Neff was a fine draughtsman, 
and his colored maps were a delight to the 
eye. One of his maps was used in the allot- 
ment of town lots, another was placed on file 
at Puerto Principe in connection with the 
recording of deeds, while others were sent 
to the New York office of the company or 
kept for use in La Gloria. Much credit is 
-due Mr. Neff for his part in the upbuilding 
of La Gloria. He was enthusiastic in for- 
warding improvements of all kinds. Both 
he and his admirable wife considered them- 
selves colonists, and looked forward with 
pleasant anticipations to a permanent home 
: in La Gloria. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Self-Reliance of the Colonists. 

I was deeply impressed by the courage 
and self-reliance of the colonists. From the 
start they showed a splendid ability to take 
care of themselves. One day early in Feb- 
ruary a white-bearded old fellow past seventy 
years of age, with blue overalls on and a hoe 
•over his shoulder, appeared at the door of 
General Van der Voort's tent. 

" General," he said, " if a man owns a lot, 
has anybody else a right to come on to it and 
pick fruit of any kind ? " 

"Not if the owner has a revolver and 
rjowie knife," laughingly replied Van der 
Voort. 

" Well," said the man, " I just thought I'd 
ask ye. A couple o' fellers (Cubans) came 
on to my lot to-day while I was at work there 
and began to pick some o' these 'ere guavas. 
I told 'em to git out, but they didn't go. 
Then I went for 'em with this hoe. One of 
'em drawed his machete, but I did n't care for 
that. I knew I could reach him with my hoe 



144 Pioneering in Cuba. 

before he could reach me with his knife. 
They went off." 

General Van der Voort laughed heartily, 
and evidently was satisfied that the man with 
the hoe was able to protect himself without 
the aid of the La Gloria police force. 

The old man's name, as I afterwards 
learned, was Joseph B. Withee. Some of 
the colonists who had become intimately 
acquainted with him familiarly called him 
" grandpa," although he was not the oldest 
man in the colony. His age was seventy- 
one years, and he hailed from the state of 
Maine. None of his family or friends had 
come to Cuba with him, but he had grown 
children living in the Pine Tree state. Alone 
and single-handed he began his pioneer life 
in La Gloria, but he was not daunted by 
obstacles or fearful of the future. On the 
contrary, he was most sanguine. He worked 
regularly every day clearing and planting 
his plantation, and was one of the first of the 
colonists to take up his residence on his own 
land. He soon had vegetables growing, and 
had set out strawberry and pineapple plants, 
besides a number of banana, orange, and 
lemon trees. It was his boast that he had 
the best spring of water in the colony, and it 



1 



Self-Reliance of the Colonists. 145 

certainly was a very good one. Mr. Withee 
declared that his health was much improved 
since coming to Cuba, and that he felt ten or 
fifteen years younger. Everybody in the 
colony could bear witness that he was re- 
markably active and industrious. Once his 
relatives in Maine, not hearing from him, 
became alarmed, and wrote to the company 
asking if he were alive and in La Gloria. 
I went down to his plantation with the letter, 
and asked him if he was alive. He thought 
he was, and suspended work long enough to 
sniff at the idea that he was not able to take 
care of himself. 

Mr. Withee was wont to admit that before 
he came to Cuba he had a weak back, but 
the only weakness we were ever able to 
detect in him was an infirmity of temper 
which foreboded pugnacious action. Most 
assuredly he had plenty of backbone, and his 
persistent pugnacity was highly amusing. 
He was always wanting to "lick" some- 
body, and I know not what my fate will be 
if we ever meet after he reads these lines, 
although we were excellent friends in La 
Gloria. I can imagine that my friend Withee 
was brought up in one of those country school 
" deestricts " where every boy had to fight 



146 Pioneering in Cuba. 

his way step by step to the respect of his 
associates, and where it was the custom for 
the big scholars to attempt each -winter to 
thrash the teacher and throw him into a 
snowdrift. If so, I will warrant that Withee 
was held in high respect. 

Withee had a great idea of standing up 
for his rights, and for a long time he was on 
the war-path, as he confided to me, in pur- 
suit of a surveyor who had cut down a small 
palm tree on his plantation. He didn't know 
which individual of the survey corps it was 
who perpetrated the " outrage," but if the old 
man found out, one of Chief Kelly's men was 
in for a good licking. Of course, the sur- 
veyor was entirely innocent of any intent to 
injure the property of Mr. Withee or any- 
body else, and cut the tree while running a 
survey line. It was some months after this, 
in September, that the spirit of Withee's 
revolutionary sires joined issue with his 
fierce indignation, and produced fatal re- 
sults — fatal to several chickens that invaded 
his premises. A neighboring colonist, who 
lived on the other side of the avenue, kept 
a large number of hens, and allowed them 
free range. They developed a fondness for 
wandering across the road, and feeding in 



i 



Self-Reliance of the Colonists. 147 

Withee's well-stocked garden. They didn't 
know Withee. The old man sputtered vehe- 
mently, and remonstrated with the owner — 
but the chickens continued to come. Finally, 
Withee went to a friendly colonist and bor- 
rowed his gun. Soon after his return home, 
one of the detested hens wandered nonchal- 
antly across the dead line, and presently was 
minus a head. Another essayed the same 
feat, with the result that there were two head- 
less chickens in La Gloria. Withee's aim 
was as good as when he used to shoot chip- 
munks in the Maine woods. The owner of 
the hens heard the reports of the gun, and 
came over. He was told to go home and pen 
up his poultry. Taking the two dead chicks, 
he went to the Rural Guards and entered a 
complaint. While he was gone, Withee re- 
duced the poultry population of La Gloria by 
one more. The owner of the hens returned, 
accompanied by Rural Guards, several prom- 
inent Cubans, and a few colonists. They had 
come to take the gun away from Withee. 
The old man stood the whole crowd off, and 
told them to keep their feet clear of his place. 
They obeyed the order, but told him he 
must kill no more chickens under penalty 
of arrest. He told them to keep the chickens 



148 Pioneering in Cuba. 

off his premises under penalty of their being- 
killed. The old man was left the master of 
the situation, and the hens were restricted to 
a pen. 

Speaking of courage and self-confidence 
reminds me of a remark of big Jack Mc- 
Cauley. There was included in the com- 
pany's property, about five miles from La 
Gloria, a deserted plantation known as Mer- 
cedes. Upon it was an old grove of orange 
trees, which, in the spring of 1900, bore a 
fine crop. For a long time everybody was 
allowed to help himself at will, and Cubans, 
colonists, and surveyors availed themselves 
of the opportunity to lay in a supply of fruit. 
At length, as the oranges grew riper, orders 
were given that no one should take more 
than he could eat on the spot, but the 
oranges continued to disappear by the bag- 
ful. Stalwart Jack McCauley was at that 
time employed about the camp by the com- 
pany, and it was decided to station him out 
at Mercedes, with a view to stopping the 
raids on the orange grove. Before leaving 
to undertake this duty, Jack quietly re- 
marked : "I'll go out there and see if I've 
got any influence, and if not, I '11 create 
some!" Big Jack's "influence" proved to 



Self-Reliance of the Colonists. 149 

be ample, and the balance of the orange 
crop was saved. 

McCauley's close friend and " pardner " 
was J. A. Messier, familiarly known as "Al- 
bany." Together they held a large tract of 
plantation land. "Albany" worked as a 
flagman in one of the surveying parties. 
Once, when the mosquitoes in the woods 
were more than ordinarily thick and fero- 
cious, he made a complaint, a rare thing in 
him or any other surveyor. " They surround 
you," he said, " and you can 't push them 
away because there is nowhere to push 
them!" "Albany" was the leading big 
snake killer in the colony, and was an adept 
at stretching and preparing their skins. 
But perhaps his greatest distinction was that 
of being floor manager of the first ball in 
La Gloria, a notable event which will be 
described in a later chapter. 

On the afternoon of February 27, the colo- 
nists who came on the third and last trip 
of the Yarmouth^ about sixty in number, 
reached La Gloria. Among them were 
Arnold Mollenhauer of New York, a repre- 
sentative of the company ; John A. Connell 
of East Weymouth, Mass., and S. W. Storm 
of Nebraska. The party was brought up 



Self-Reliance of the Colonists. 151 

from Nuevitas on the snug little steamer Bay 
Shore, and had a very comfortable passage. 
The Bay Shore was bought by the company 
to ply between Nuevitas and Port La Gloria, 
and was to have been used to transport the 
colonists who came to Cuba on the first 
Yarmouth excursion, but, unfortunately, she 
came into collision with another boat at 
about that time, and was unfit for use for 
several weeks. This was one of a singular 
chain of accidents and annoyances which 
gave the colony a serious setback at the 
very start. The Bay Shore proved to be a 
very unlucky boat, and was laid up from one 
cause or another most of the time. When 
the Bay Shore was out of commission, a 
sail-boat had to be used between La Gloria 
and Nuevitas. 

Mr. Mollenhauer did not remain long at 
La Gloria at this time, but established his 
headquarters at Nuevitas, taking up the work 
that had. been in charge of Maj. P. S. Tuni- 
son. Young Mr. Mollenhauer proved to be 
the right man in the right place. He was 
active and efficient in the performance of his 
duties, and was very much liked by the colo- 
nists for his gentlemanly bearing, accommo- 
dating spirit, and frank and upright character. 



152 Pioneering in Cuba. 

The affairs of the company and the colony 
took a new start when he came to Cuba and 
assumed charge of the disbursement of the 
funds. 

John A. Connell was a prosperous business 
man of East Weymouth, Mass., and came to 
La Gloria to make it his permanent home. He 
was one of the most enthusiastic and progres- 
sive of the colonists, and gave daily expression 
to his liking for Cuba and his firm faith in the 
future of La Gloria. He was a man of prop- 
erty and of decided ability. Physically, he was 
a giant, being six feet four inches tall, and 
well proportioned. He was fond of athletics 
and was himself a good athlete. A man of 
strong intelligence, he appeared to good ad- 
vantage as a speaker. Mr. Connell built the 
first frame building in La Gloria, a modest 
board structure with a roofing of tarred paper, 
and occupied it as a general store. It was 
situated on Central avenue in the company's 
reserve. This was not, however, the first 
store in La Gloria. Besides the company's 
commissary, W. G. Spiker started a store in 
a tent several months earlier. George E. 
Morrison opened a store in a tent on Central 
avenue just inside of the town line at about 
the same time that Connell started, and did a 



Self- Reliance of the Colonists. 153 

good business until he returned to the States 
several months later. Morrison had lived in 
many places, including Chicago, 111., and 
Central America. In practical affairs he was 
one of the most versatile men in the colony. 

S. W. Storm of Nebraska was a veteran 
of the Civil War, and a good type of his 
class. Cheerful and buoyant, lively as a boy, 
he entered into the pioneer life with a hearty 
relish, as, indeed, did all of the many old sol- 
diers who came to La Gloria. The renewal 
of camp life under agreeable climatic condi- 
tions seemed to be a great joy to them. Mr. 
Storm was never known to complain of any- 
thing, not even when he severely cut his foot 
while chopping. He brought with him to La 
Gloria his young son Guy, who was soon 
placed in school. 

The first school in La Gloria was started 
and taught by Mrs. Whittle of Albany, N. Y. 
It occupied a large shelter tent on the reserve, 
near Central avenue. It was fitted up with a 
board floor, wooden benches, tables, etc. The 
school opened February 26 with six scholars, 
and though text-books were few in number, 
the pupils made good progress in their studies. 
Mrs. Whittle was an attractive and cultivated 
lady, and an inspiring and tactful teacher. 



i54 



Pioneering in Cuba. 



Before the middle of March the school had 
sixteen scholars, and a little later twenty-one. 
There was also at the same time an evening- 
school for men, in which Mrs. Whittle taught 
grammar and spelling, and Mr. Max Neuber 
of Philadelphia, a prominent colonist, gave 
lessons in Spanish. Tuition was free in both 
schools, which were kept up until Mrs. Whit- 
tle and Mr. Neuber returned to the States in 
April. 




CHAPTER XII. 

The First Holiday in La Gloria. 

The first holiday in La Gloria was marked 
by incidents that will be long remembered by 
the colonists. The credit for the inaugura- 
tion of the movement for such a day belongs 
to John A. Connell, whose warm Irish blood 
craved athletic sport. Some of the rest of us 
were not far behind him in this particular. 
Mr. Connell arranged a program of running, 
jumping, wheelbarrow and potato races, etc., 
and after a conference of those interested, it 
was decided to ask the president of the com- 
pany to declare a general half-holiday. I was 
delegated to bring the matter before Gen- 
eral Van der Voort, who entered heartily into 
the spirit of the affair and readily granted our 
request. Accordingly, a formal proclama- 
tion was drawn up setting aside Saturday 
afternoon, March 24, as a holiday throughout 
the colony. The first draft was copied in the 
elegant handwriting of Chief Engineer Kelly, 
duly signed by President Van der Voort and 
attested by his secretary, and then conspicu- 



156 Pioneering in Cuba. 

ously posted on the flag-staff which graced 
Central avenue. Further preparations were 
made for the red-letter day? and a baseball 
game added to the program. I found in my 
trunk a baseball, which I had brought to Cuba, 
I know not why, except, perhaps, with the 
American idea that a baseball is always a 
good companion. Simultaneously, the inde- 
fatigable J. L. Ratekin — one time a soldier in 
Col. William J. Bryan's Nebraska regiment 
in the Spanish War — dragged out of his kit 
a good baseball bat. Why Ratekin brought 
this bat to Cuba I cannot say, but I half sus- 
pect that he thought he might have to use it 
in self-defence. I am glad to be able to state, 
however, that it was put only to peaceful and 
legitimate uses, and killed nothing save " in- 
shoots" and "drops." 

Saturday, March 24, was a remarkably fine 
day even for sunny Cuba. A cloudless sky 
of beautiful blue, a temperature of from 80 to 
90 degrees, and a soft, refreshing breeze com- 
bined to make it ideal weather for La Gloria's 
initial holiday. I remember that several bicy- 
cles were brought out and used on this day, 
one or two by young women. The muddy 
trails had dried up in most places, so that 
wheels could be ridden for considerable dis- 



First Holiday in La Gloria. 157 

tances on the roads radiating from La Gloria. 
The dry season was fairly on by March 1, 
and for some time thereafter mud was practi- 
cally eliminated from our list of annoyances. 
At noon the several surveying parties 
tramped in from their distant work in the 
woods, and soon after the colonists began to 
gather on Central avenue from headquarters 
tent to ConnelPs store. The women proved 
that they had not left all their finery in the 
States, while nearly every child was in its best 
bib and tucker. The men appeared in a 
great variety of costumes, but most of them 
had given more thought to comfort than to 
elegance. It was at this time that the first 
large group picture of the colonists was taken. 
The opportunity was too good to lose. We 
were hastily grouped across Central avenue, 
and three amateur photographers simultane- 
ously took shots at us. The resulting photo- 
graph, though on a small scale, is a faithful 
picture of about half the colonists in La Gloria 
on March 24, 1900. One of the photogra- 
phers was Lieut. Evans of the Eighth U. S. 
Cavalry, who had arrived in La Gloria 
the day before in command of a pack train 
consisting of about a dozen men and twenty 
mules. The detachment came from the city 



First Holiday in La Gloria. 159 

of Puerto Principe and was touring the coun- 
try for practice and exercise. It may easily 
"be imagined that we were glad to see them, 
and they seemed equally glad to see us. 
At our earnest solicitation they consented to 
participate in our holiday sports. 

The sports went off well. There were 
some good athletes among the colonists, but 
a soldier named T. Brooks succeeded in 
winning a majority of the events. He was 
a quiet little fellow, but his athletic prowess 
was a credit to the United States army. A 
few Cubans took part in the events, but did 
not distinguish themselves. The chief at- 
traction of the day was the baseball game, 
which began about the middle of the after- 
noon. A diamond had been laid out in a 
large open space just east of Central avenue, 
and the ground was remarkably level and 
hard. It was a natural baseball field, and 
with but little work was ready for use. The 
greater part of the colony, men, women, and 
children, gathered to see the first exhibition 
of the American national game in La Gloria. 
Among the spectators were President Van der 
Voort and Chief Engineer Kelly. There 
were also a few Spaniards and many Cubans 
present. Few of the latter, probably, had 



160 Pioneering in Cuba. 

ever before seen a baseball game, although 
the sport is a popular pastime among the 
American soldiers encamped near Puerto 
Principe. This latter fact accounts for the 
proficiency of the soldiers who came to La 
Gloria. They formed one nine, and the other 
was made up of colonists. The latter played 
well, everything considered, but the superior 
discipline and practice of Uncle Sam's boys 
made them the winners in a close score. The 
game was umpired by M. T. Jones of Wil- 
liamsport, Pennsylvania, one of the colonists 
who came on the first Yarmouth and the ca- 
pable assistant of Superintendent Maginniss 
about the camp. The game ended an hour 
or two before sundown and closed the outdoof 
sports of a very successful and enjoyable day. 
But there was one notable event on that, 
first holiday not down on the program, and 
one which few of the colonists knew anything 
about at the time and of which not many had 
subsequent knowledge. As I wended my 
way in the direction of my tent near General 
Van der Voort's house, under the mellow rays 
of the declining sun, three excited colonists 
intercepted me. They were Chief Engineer 
Kelly, John A. Connell, and D. E. Lowell. 
Drawing me aside from the thoroughfare,, 



First Holiday in La Gloria. 161 

they hastily informed me that a lawyer by 
the name of C. Hugo Drake, of Puerto 
Principe, had just come into La Gloria with 
Lieutenant Cienfuente, the owner of the 
Viaro tract, with the intention of dispossess- 
ing the colonists of their land. They had 
ridden in on horseback from Puerto Principe, 
forty-five miles away. Lieutenant Cienfuente 
was an elderly Spaniard who had been an 
officer in the Spanish army, and Drake 
claimed to have charge, in part, of his busi- 
ness affairs. We had heard from Drake 
before, and knew perfectly well that he had 
induced the landholding Spaniard to come 
with him to La Gloria. Drake was an 
American, having come to Cuba from Mis- 
sissippi just after the war with Spain and set 
up as a lawyer and restaurant keeper in 
Puerto Principe. He was a young man of a 
prominent family, but was reputed to be 
somewhat dissipated. He has since persist- 
ently claimed that his errand to La Gloria 
was not to dispossess the colonists, but in 
reality was in their interest. This explana- 
tion cannot be accepted, however, except 
upon the hypothesis that the colonists were 
bound to lose their lands under the contracts 
which they held. This, as the event proved, 



162 Pioneering in Cuba. 

was a groundless fear ; their holdings were 
perfectly secure. 

In order to make the situation clear to the 
reader a little explanation is necessary. The 
Viaro tract, which was the one in question, 
included about two thirds of the town site 
and a little over ten thousand acres of planta- 
tion land adjoining. The greater part of this 
land had been allotted to colonists, but no 
deeds had then been given. The company 
had made a first payment on the tract, and 
was paying the balance in instalments. 
One of these instalments was overdue when 
Drake came to La Gloria with Lieutenant 
Cienfuente, who had owned the land, and 
set up the claim that the contract had lapsed. 
Lieutenant Cienfuente was willing to wait a 
reasonable length of time for his pay, but 
had become suspicious that he was not going 
to get it at all, and hence was more or less 
under the influence of Drake, who appears to 
have been a self-appointed attorney for the 
Spaniard. Drake had a great scheme, 
which was to make a new contract directly 
with the colonists, or newly chosen represen- 
tatives, at an advanced price for the tract. 
This advance was to be divided between 
Cienfuente and himself, and Drake's share 



First Holiday in La Gloria. 163 

would have amounted to $25,000 or $30,000. 
Of course, in Drake's scheme, the only alter- 
native for the colonists was dispossession. 
Yielding to the young lawyer's insinuating 
representations, Lieutenant Cienfuente had 
agreed to the plan, but he was by no means 
an aggressive factor in it. Meanwhile, the 
company's officers in New York were con- 
cluding arrangements to make the overdue 
payment, which was done a few weeks later. 
With but little hesitation, Lieutenant Cien- 
fuente accepted the money from Messrs. 
Park and Mollenhauer, and Drake's little 
scheme collapsed like a toy balloon. 

A part of the above facts only were known 
to us when Messrs. Kelly, Connell, Lowell, 
and myself had our hurried conference late 
in the afternoon of our first holiday. Mr. 
Lowell was particularly excited, and seri- 
ously disturbed by the apprehension that he 
might have his land taken away from him. 
It was quickly agreed that it was for the 
mutual interest of Drake and the colony that 
he should not be permitted to spend the night 
in La Gloria. We went over to the house 
of General Van der Voort, and discussed the 
situation with him. He mingled his indigna- 
tion with ours, and dictated a peremptory 



164 Pioneering in Cuba. 

order that Drake should leave the camp at 
once. I was commissioned to deliver the 
message, and Messrs. Kelly, Connell, and 
Lowell volunteered to accompany me. After 
a little search we found Drake near the '* old 
senor's" shack. He seemed to divine our 
errand and came forward to meet us, pale 
and trembling, perhaps from excitement, pos- 
sibly from fear. Indeed, we must have 
looked somewhat formidable if not bellig- 
erent. We were all large men, and Kelly 
was the only one of the four who was not six 
feet or more in height. I gave Drake the 
paper from the general. Scarcely glancing 
at it, he said, apologetically, in a low tone, 
" It's all a mistake, gentlemen, I meant no 
harm to anybody." We assured him that we 
thought he would be safer elsewhere than in 
La Gloria. He did not stop to argue the mat- 
ter, but turning went directly to the shack and 
saddled his horse. We had intended to give 
him an hour ; he was out of La Gloria in ten 
minutes. He was obliged to spend the night 
in the dense woods. 

The treatment of Mr. Drake was not hos- 
pitable, but the colonists looked upon him 
as an interloper whose machinations might 
bring upon them a great deal of trouble. I 



First Holiday in La Gloria. 165 

do not think he had any wish to injure the 
colonists, but he certainly had an itching 
palm for the large stake which he thought he 
saw within his reach. I saw him a week or 
two later in Puerto Principe, and he was 
amicable enough. He still believed his 
scheme would go through, but it was not 
long before his hopes were dashed. He told 
me he was heavily armed when in La Gloria, 
and could have " dropped" all four of us, but 
that he had promised Lieutenant Cienfuente 
not to make any trouble. He surely did not, 
as it turned out. Mr. Drake had the manners 
of a gentleman, and extended many courte- 
sies to me during my stay in Puerto Principe. 
His resentment on account of the La Gloria 
episode was mainly directed toward General 
Van der Voort, and he emphatically declared 
that he had already taken steps to summon 
the general into court for the insult. 

Lieutenant Cienfuente remained in La 
Gloria as our special guest. He was enter- 
tained at the officers' table, was the guest of 
honor at the meeting of the Pioneer Associa- 
tion that evening, and every effort was made 
to make him feel at home. On the following 
Monday he left for his home in Puerto Prin- 
cipe in high good humor. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Industry of the Colonists. 

The opening of spring did not bring any- 
material change in weather that the colonists 
could detect, save that the occasional rainfall 
had ceased. The temperature for March was 
about the same as for January and February, 
the lowest recorded by the thermometer being 
53°, and the highest 92 . The weather was 
delightful and comfortable. There was more 
blossoming of flowers in the woods and the 
openings, and many a big tree became a ver- 
itable flower garden, with great clusters of 
pink orchids clinging to its huge trunk and 
massive limbs. There were several trees thus 
ornamented in close proximity to my tent. 

The colonists were now progressing with 
their work and displaying the greatest indus- 
try. Considerable clearing had been done, 
and some planting. Gardens were growing 
well, and the colonists were eating potatoes, 
beans, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc., of their 
own raising. Many thousands of pineapple 
plants had been set out, and banana and 



Industry of the Colonists. 167 

orange trees were being put into the ground 
as fast as they- could be obtained. Many of 
the colonists were employed more or less by 
the company in one capacity or another. 
Some worked on the road, some about the 
camp, a few in the gardens, and still others 
in the cook-house. A number had been em- 
ployed in the survey corps almost from the 
time of their arrival, while others worked " off 
and on," according to their convenience and 
disposition. The work of the surveyors was 
hard and exposing, and the fare usually poor 
and meagre, but for all that the men generally 
liked the employment and there was a con- 
stant stream of applicants for vacant places. 
In most cases the applicant knew what was 
before him and hence could appreciate the 
grim humor of Chief Kelly's unvarying form- 
ula. After questioning the applicant to ascer- 
tain if he really wanted to work, the chief 
would say, facetiously : " All you have to do 
is to follow a painted pole and eat three meals 
a day." Following a " painted pole " through 
the mud, water, and underbrush of a Cuban 
jungle, especially with an axe in one's hand 
to wield constantly, is no sinecure, but the 
men did not have to work very hard at their 
meals ! My admiration of the pluck and 



Industry of the Colonists. 169 

patience of the " boys " on the survey corps 
was unbounded, and, I believe, fully justified. 
At their table the chief had designated an offi- 
cial kicker, and no one else was supposed to 
utter a complaint, and it was seldom that they 
did. The discipline was like that of an army. 
When a man was ordered to do a thing, two 
courses lay open to him — do it or quit. Usu- 
ally the orders were carried out. 

One of the most capable and industrious of 
the colonists was B. F. Seibert of Omaha, 
Nebraska. He was a man of taste and refine- 
ment, and at the same time eminently practi- 
cal. He was a veteran of the Civil War and 
a prominent citizen in the Western city Whence 
he came. He had lived at one time in Cali- 
fornia, and there had gained special knowl- 
edge of the cultivation of fruits, flowers, and 
ornamental shrubbery. A few days after his 
arrival in La Gloria in January, Mr. Seibert 
was placed in charge of the port, and at once 
set to work to bring order out of chaos. He 
took care of the large amount of baggage and 
freight that had been dumped in the mud on 
the shore, placing it under temporary shelter, 
and a little later constructed an ample ware- 
house connecting with the pier. He removed 
the bushes and debris from the beach, thor- 



170 Pioneering in Cuba. 

oughly drained the locality, leveled the ground, 
cleared the accumulated sea-weed from the 
sand of the shore, extended and improved the 
pier, and put everything in first-class order, 
until one of the roughest and most forbidding 
of spots became positively attractive. I have 
rarely seen so complete and pleasing a trans- 
formation. The Port La Gloria of to-day is a 
delightful place, neat and well kept, swept by 
balmy breezes from the sea, and commanding 
an entrancing view across the vari-colored 
waters of the beautiful bay to the island of 
Guajaba, with its picturesque mountains, and 
the other keys along the coast. There is good 
sea-bathing here, and excellent fishing not 
far away. A few miles down the coast the 
mouth of the Maximo river is reached, where 
one may shoot alligators to his heart's con- 
tent, while along the shore of Guajaba Key 
the resplendent flamingo may be brought 
down by a hunter who is clever enough to 
get within range of the timid bird. Assistant 
Chief Engineer Neville was a good flamingo 
hunter, and we occasionally dined off the big 
bird at the officers' table. 

One of the hardest workers in the colony 
was Jason L. Ratekin, who came from Omaha, 
Nebraska. He was a man of marked indi- 



Industry of the Colonists. 171 

viduality, and though not overburdened with 
capital, was fertile in resources and full of 
energy and determination. At first he per- 
formed arduous work for the company in the 
transportation of baggage and freight from 
the port with the bullock team, and later went 
into business for himself as a contractor for 
the clearing and planting of land. He was 
enthusiastic and progressive. Among all the 
colonists there was none more public-spirited, 
and he demonstrated his kindness of heart on 
many occasions. Once when the bullock 
team was bringing in a sick woman and sev- 
eral small children, and the rough and weari- 
some journey was prolonged into the darkness- 
of the night, he distinguished himself by car- 
rying the ten-months-old baby nearly all the 
way in his arms and by breaking into a con- 
signment of condensed milk to save it from 
starvation. Ratekin was a rough-looking fel- 
low, but a more generous and kindly nature 
is seldom met with. 

The first banquet in La Gloria was held on 
the evening of March 26, in honor of the fifty- 
second birthday of Col. Thomas H. Maginniss,. 
superintendent of camp, who was about to- 
return to his wife and eleven children in Phil- 
adelphia. M. T. Jones of Williamsport, Pa.,. 



172 Pioneering in Cuba. 

was master of ceremonies, and the occasion 
was highly enjoyable. The banquet was 
served in a tent restaurant on Central avenue, 
and the guests numbered about twenty, sev- 
eral of whom were ladies. The table pre- 
sented a very attractive appearance, and the 
menu included salads, sardines, salt beef, 
smoked herrings, fresh fish, bread, cake and 
lime-o-na.de. Among the after-dinner speak- 
ers were Colonel Maginniss, General Van der 
Voort, S. N. Ware of Wyoming, Jesse B. 
Kimes, Rev. Dr. Gill, D. E. Lowell, M. A. 
C. Neff, H. O. Neville, John A. Connell, and 
James M. Adams. The banquet was voted a 
success by all present. 

On Sunday, April 1, Colonel Maginniss and 
about twenty of the colonists left La Gloria 
for Nuevitas preparatory to sailing for the 
States. This was the largest number of colo- 
nists that had departed at one time since mid- 
winter, and their leaving caused some depres- 
sion throughout the colony. This was quick- 
ly over, however, and new arrivals soon made 
up for the numerical loss. The Maginniss 
party included M. T. Jones of Pennsylvania 
and H. E. Mosher of New York state, who 
had been his assistants in the work of the camp, 
and Mrs. Whittle of Albany, N. Y., and Max 



Industry of the Colonists. 173. 

Neuber of Philadelphia, Pa., who had been 
the teachers of the day and evening schools. 
Mr. Neuber and some of the others expressed 
the intention of returning to La Gloria later 
in the year. 

The departure of the score of colonists at 
this time was marked by a most melancholy 
incident, which was speedily followed by the 
first death in La Gloria. John F. Maxfield of 
Providence, R. I., a man past middle age, 
who had come to La Gloria on the first Ya?-- 
mouth excursion, had been ill for several weeks 
with a complication of ailments. Although 
he had the watchful care and companionship 
of a friend from the same city, Capt. Joseph 
Chace, he became very much depressed 
and sadly homesick. When the Maginniss 
party was made up to return to the States, 
he believed himself sufficiently improved 
to accompany it, and braced up wonderfully 
for the effort. When the day arrived, he an- 
nounced his intention of walking to the port, 
and set out to do so, but was quickly picked 
up and taken down in a wagon. At the pier 
he was overcome by exhaustion, and exhibited 
so much weakness that it was deemed unsafe 
to place him on board of either of the small 
and crowded sail-boats. It was feared he 



174 Pioneering in Cuba. 

would not survive the hardships and exposure 
of the journey to Nuevitas. The decision to 
leave him behind, although kindly meant, was 
a great blow to him, and was believed by some 
to have hastened his death, which took place 
the next morning. However this may be, it 
is improbable that he would have lived to 
reach his home in the States. Heart failure 
was the final cause of his death. He had good 
care at the port, but his extreme weakness 
could not be overcome. Mr. Maxfield was a 
quiet, unobtrusive man, and was held in high 
esteem throughout the colony. He was buried 
in a pleasant spot in the company's reserve, 
and his funeral was attended by almost the 
entire colony and some of the Cubans. The 
services were held out of doors in a beautiful 
glade, and were conducted by the Rev. Dr. 
Gill. It was a most impressive scene. This 
was the only death in La Gloria during the six 
months succeeding the arrival of the first col- 
onists. This low rate of mortality was the 
more remarkable from the fact that a number 
of invalids came or were brought into the col- 
ony during the winter. One day there came 
in from the port a wagon bringing a woman 
who had been a paralytic for years, and her 
sick husband, who had been unable to sit up 



Industry of the Colonists. 175 

for a long time. They were from Kansas, 
and were accompanied hy grown children 
and friends. The colonists expected there 
would very soon be two deaths in La Gloria, 
"but the sick man, who was a mere skeleton, 
improved steadily and in a few weeks was able 
to walk about the camp, while his paralytic 
wife was no worse and was considered by the 
family to be slightly better. Considering that 
the invalids were living in tents without expert 
care, the man's recovery was hardly less than 
marvelous. 

On April 2, work on the corduroy road to 
the port, which had been suspended, was re- 
sumed under the capable supervision of D. E. 
Lowell. Mr. Lowell proved to be the best 
roadmaker who had taken a hand at the 
game up to that time, and, considering the 
little he had to do with, accomplished a great 
deal. His workmen were from among the 
colonists and he rarely had more than ten or 
twelve at a time, and usually less, but in five 
or six weeks he had done much for the bet- 
terment of the highway. No one realized 
better than Mr. Lowell that this was only a 
temporary road, but it was the best to be had 
at the time. Later in the year, a fine, per- 
manent highway to the port was begun by 



176 



Pioneering in Cuba. 



Chief Engineer Kelly, and when completed 
La Gloria's great drawback will be removed. 
Kelly's is a substantial, rock-ballasted road, 
twelve feet wide, and graded two feet above 
high- water mark. It will make La Gloria 
easy of access from the coast. 




CHAPTER XIV. 
The First Ball in La Gloria. 

Meanwhile, the sale and allotment of 
plantations and town lots steadily continued, 
until on April 9, six months from the day 
the surveyors began their operations, about 
twelve thousand or fifteen thousand acres of 
land had been allotted, besides nine hundred 
and thirty-three city lots. Many of the lots 
had been cleared, and parts of some of the 
plantations. Quite an amount of planting, in 
the aggregate, had been done. 

The survey corps and the colonists agreed 
that the semi-anniversary of the coming of the 
surveyors to La Gloria should be marked by 
a celebration, and the bold project of a grand 
ball was set on foot. When I first heard of 
it, I thought it was a joke, but when I saw a 
long list of committees conspicuously posted 
on Central avenue, and had been requested 
b}' " Albany " to announce the coming event 
at the regular meeting of the Pioneer Asso- 
ciation, I realized that the talk had been 
serious and that Terpsichore had actually 
12 



178 Pioneering in Cuba. 

gained a footing in La Gloria. I was au- 
thorized to announce that the ball would be 
in charge of a French dancing master, which 
was the fact, for Floor Manager Messier 
("Albany") was a Frenchman by birth. 
The ball and the accompanying supper were 
free to all, but the women of the colony had 
been requested to contribute food — and most 
nobly they responded — while the men, par- 
ticularly the surveyors, hustled for fruit, 
sugar, etc. It was a cheering sight when 
big Jack McCauley drove in from Mercedes 
with the mule team, bringing a whole barrel 
of oranges. These were some of the oranges 
which had been saved by Jack's " influence." 
It was no small task to make the necessary 
preparations for the ball, and some of the 
committees were kept very busy. I was on 
the committee on music, and learned to my 
dismay, a few hours before the ball was to 
open, that Dan Goodman, the fiddler, had been 
attacked by stage fright and had declared 
that if he was to be the whole orchestra he 
would "hang up the fiddle and the bow." 
I interviewed Dan, — who was just as good 
a fellow as his name implies, — and found that 
he was really suffering from Pennsylvania 
modesty. Accordingly it devolved on me to 



First Ball in La Gloria. 179 

build up an orchestra with Dan as a nucleus. 
I succeeded beyond my expectations. In a 
short time I had secured the musical services 
of Ed. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Spiker, and others. 
The evening came, and like Jerry Rusk, they 
"seen their duty and done it." And it may 
further be said that they " done it " very well. 
It was decided to hold the ball in a large 
canvas-covered structure which had formerly 
been used as a restaurant kitchen and store- 
house. There was only a dirt floor, and 
hence the matter of a temporary flooring 
became a problem. Boards were almost an 
unknown luxury in La Gloria at that time, 
but a few were picked up about the camp, 
and the Rev. Dr. Gill kindly loaned the floor- 
ing of his tent for the evening. Even then, 
only so much of the ballroom floor was 
boarded as was actually used for dancing. It 
is not too much to say that the ballroom was 
elaborately decorated. High overhead were 
fastened graceful and beautiful palm leaves, 
a dozen feet or more in length, and there 
were green wreathes and initial letters flecked 
with flowers and bright red berries. Men, 
women, and children joined efforts to make 
the interior of the tent a bower of tropical 
beauty. The effect was most pleasing. 



180 Pioneering- in Cuba. 

Such decorations in the Northern states would 
doubtless have cost a large sum of money. 
Here they cost only a little time and labor. 
I wish I could say that the ballroom was 
brilliantly lighted, but the gas and electric 
light plants were as yet unplanted, and we 
had to depend on kerosene lanterns sus- 
pended from the roof. However, as most of 
us had been using only candles for illumina- 
tion, the lantern light seemed very good. 
No one thought of complaining that it was 
dark. 

I shall not be able to describe the Grand 
Ball in all its wondrous details, but only to 
make brief mention of a few of the features 
which particularly impressed me. I remem- 
ber that as the people gathered together we 
had great difficulty in recognizing each other. 
We had thought we were all well acquainted, 
but that was before the men and women had 
gone down into the bottom of their trunks 
and fished out their good clothes. The trans- 
formation, particularly in some of the men, 
was paralyzing, and after we had identified 
the individuals inside of the clothes, many of 
us forgot our company manners and opened 
our mouths wide in astonishment. Men who 
had been accustomed to wear, seven days in 



First Ball in La Gloria. 



each week, a careless outing costume, or old, 
cheap clothes of cotton or woolen material, or 
mayhap nothing more than shirt and over- 
alls, had suddenly blossomed out in well- 
fitting black suits, set off by cuffs, high col- 
lars, and silk ties. It was a dazzling sight 
for La Gloria. The men had been very 
negligent of their dress ; scarcely one had 
brought his valet with him to Cuba ! There 
may even have been a few dress suits at the 
ball, and I will not make oath that some of 
the women were not in decollete gowns ; to 
be entirely safe, however, I will not swear 
that they were. The women looked very 
well and so did the men ; all were a credit 
to an American colony. 

Mr. J. A. Messier ("Albany"), the floor 
manager and master of ceremonies, was at- 
tired in neat and conventional dress, and per- 
formed his duties gracefully and well. The 
grand march was led by General Van der 
Voort and Mrs. Dan Goodman, followed by 
Chief Engineer Kelly with a daughter of 
Sefior Rivas. I do not find among my posses- 
sions a dance order, and hence can give no 
description of it ; and I apprehend that the 
others present would have no better success. 
But there was dancing, and a lot of it. 




V 

* 



First Ball in La Gloria. 183 

Furthermore, it was much enjoyed, both by 
the participants and the spectators. About 
the middle of the evening some specialties 
were introduced. Chief Engineer Kelly per- 
formed a clog dance successfully, turning a 
handspring at the end, and Architect Neff 
executed an eccentric French dance with a 
skill and activity that brought down the 
house. There was also good clog dancing 
by some of the younger men. 

The ball was attended by nearly the entire 
colony. This was made manifest when we 
lined up for supper, which was served across 
the street. The procession to the tables 
numbered one hundred and forty persons by 
actual count. The tables were set under 
shelter tents, and were beautifully decorated 
and loaded with food. There were meats, 
fish, salads, puddings, cakes, and a wonder- 
ful variety of pies, in which the guava was 
conspicuous. Coffee and fruits were also 
much in evidence. Never before had La 
Gloria seen such a spread. On this occasion 
the women of the colony achieved a well- 
merited reputation for culinary skill and re- 
sourcefulness. Except for a few enthusiasts, 
who went back to the ballroom for more 
dancing, the supper wound up the evening's 



184 Pioneering in Cuba. 

festivities. The semi-anniversary had been 
properly celebrated, and the first ball in La 
Gloria had proved successful beyond antici- 
pation. April 9, 1900, may be set down as 
a red letter day in the history of the colony. 
Speaking of the ball and its orchestra calls 
to mind the music in the camp in the early 
days of the colony. There was not much. 
Occasionally a violin was heard ; and more 
often, perhaps, a guitar or mandolin. But 
the most persistent musician was a cornet 
player, who for a time was heard regularly 
every night from one end of the camp. His 
wind was good, but his repertoire small. He 
knew "Home, Sweet Home" from attic to 
cellar, and his chief object in life seemed to 
be to make others as familiar with it as him- 
self. He played little else, and the melting 
notes of John Howard Payne's masterpiece 
floated through the quiet camp hour after 
hour, night after night. Finally, the colo- 
nists visited him and told him gently but 
firmly that he must stop playing that piece so 
much : it was making them all homesick. 
Not long after the cornet player disappeared. 
I think there was no foul play. Probably he 
had simply betaken himself to home, sweet 
home. 



First Ball in La Gloria. 185 

There were many good singers in camp. 
Some of them met regularly once or twice a 
week and sang gospel hymns. These formed 
the choir at the Sunday services. There was 
another group of vocalists, equally excellent 
in its way, which confined itself to rendering 
popular songs. Some of the latter, who 
dwelt and had their "sings" near my tent, 
would have done credit to the vaudeville 
stage. They were known as the "Kansas 
crowd." It gave me, a native of the Granite 
state, great satisfaction to hear these Kansas 
people singing with spirit and good expres- 
sion "My Old New Hampshire Home." I 
was pleased to regard it as a Western tribute 
to New Hampshire as the place of the ideal 
home. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A Walking Trip to Puerto Principe. 

It was on the day after the Grand Ball, 
Tuesday, April 10, that a party of us started 
on a walking trip to the city of Puerto Principe, 
forty-five miles away. My companions, who, 
like myself, were all colonists, were Jeff D. 
Franklin of Florida, David Murphy of New 
Jersey, A. H. Carpenter of Massachusetts, 
and a Mr. Crosby of Tennessee. Mr. Crosby 
was a man of middle age ; the rest of us were 
younger, Carpenter being a mere youth of 
perhaps eighteen. All were good walkers. 
The start was made at about 8:30 in the 
morning. The day was pleasant and balmy, 
but not excessively warm. The trail was 
now in good condition, and the walking 
would have been altogether agreeable had it 
not been for the packs upon our shoulders. 
We carried hammocks, blankets, and such 
food as bread, crackers, sardines, bacon, and 
coffee. One of the party had a frying-pan 
slung across his back. Our loads were not 



A Walking Trip. 187 

actually heavy, but they seemed so after we 
had walked a few miles. 

Our course lay to the southwest, through 
the deserted plantation of Mercedes, where 
we stopped an hour to eat oranges and chat 
with the colonists at work there. Resuming 
our march, we soon passed an inhabited 
Cuban shack near an abandoned sugar mill, 
stopping a few minutes to investigate a small 
banana patch near the road. We had been 
here before and knew the owner. A mile 
further on we reached another occupied shack, 
and called to get a drink of agua (water). 
We were hospitably received in the open 
front of the casa (house) and given heavy, 
straight-backed, leather-bottomed chairs of 
an antique pattern. The agua furnished was 
rain water which had been stored in a cistern, 
and had at least the virtue of being wet. 
There were at home an old man, a very 
fleshy elderly woman, and two rather good- 
looking girls, the appearance and dress of one 
of whom indicated that she was a visitor. 
This was about the only shack we saw where 
there were no young children in evidence. 
We tarried but a few minutes. After making 
inquiries about the road, as we did at almost 
every house, we continued on our way. 



1 88 Pioneering in Cuba. 

For the next three or four miles we had a 
good hard trail through the woods, but saw 
neither habitation nor opening. Shortly after 
noon we emerged from the woods into an 
open space, where, on slightly elevated 
ground, stood two shacks. We had been here 
before and knew the man who occupied one 
of them. There was no land under cultiva- 
tion in sight, and the only fruit a custard 
apple tree and a few mangoes. There were 
a good many pigs roaming about, and the 
shack we entered contained several small 
children. Our Cuban friend seemed glad to 
see us ; his wife brought us water to drink, 
and we were invited to sit down. Our social 
call would have been more satisfactory if we 
had known more Spanish, or our host had 
spoken English. We made but a brief stay, 
and on departing asked the Cuban to point 
out to us the road to Puerto Principe. Since 
leaving the woods we had seen no road or 
trail of any sort. He took us around his 
house and accompanied us for some distance, 
finally pointing out an indistinct trail across 
high savanna land which he said was the 
right one. This path, which could hardly be 
seen, was the " road" from the coast to the 
third largest city in Cuba, only about thirty 



A Walking Trip. 189 

miles away ! Such are Cuban roads. At 
times you can only guess whether you are in 
a road or out of it. 

What lay before us was now entirely unfa- 
miliar. At about one o'clock we halted by 
the side of the trail for a midday rest and 
lunch. We were a dozen miles from La 
Gloria, and about an equal distance from the 
Cubitas mountains, through which we were 
to pass. An hour later we took up the march 
again. We soon entered the woods and 
found a smooth, firm trail over the red earth. 
We passed through miles of timber, of a fine* 
straight growth. In the thick woods but few 
royal palms were seen, but in the more open 
country we saw some magnificent groves of 
them. During the afternoon we passed only 
two or three shacks, but as we approached 
the Cubitas mountains the few habitations and 
their surroundings improved in character. 
The houses continued to be palm-thatched, 
but they were more commodious and sur- 
rounded by gardens in which were a few 
orange and banana trees, and other fruits and 
vegetables. Some of the places were quite 
pretty. Occasionally we would see cleared 
land that had once been cultivated, but no 
growing crops of any amount. This part of 



190 Pioneering in Cuba. 

the country had been agriculturally dead 
since the Ten Years' War. How the natives 
live, I know not, but it is safe to say that they 
do not live well. They raise boniatos and 
cassava, a little fruit, and keep a few pigs. 
Often their chief supply of meat is derived 
from the wild hogs which they shoot. And 
yet these Cubans were living on some of the 
best land in the world. 

Late in the afternoon, after walking for a 
mile or more along a good road bordered by 
the ornamental but worthless jack-pineapple 
plant, we came to a wide gateway opening 
into an avenue lined with cocoanut palms and 
leading up to a couple of well-made Cuban 
shacks. The houses stood at the front of 
quite a large garden of fruit trees. We called 
at one of the shacks, which proved to be well 
populated. An elderly man, large for a 
Cuban and well-built, came forward to greet 
us and was inclined to be sociable. His shirt 
appeared to be in the wash, but this fact did 
not seem to embarrass him any ; he still had 
his trousers. Of a younger man we bought 
a few pounds of boniatos (sweet potatoes) 
and after some urging persuaded him to go 
out and get some green cocoanuts for us from 
the trees. He sent his little boy of about 



A Walking Trip. 191 

twelve years of age up the tree to hack off a 
bunch of the nuts with his machete. We 
drank the copious supply of milk with great 
satisfaction ; there is no more refreshing drink 
in all Cuba. As the boy had done all the 
work, we designedly withheld our silver until 
he had come down the tree and we could 
place it in his hands. We wondered if he 
would be allowed to keep it. Climbing the 
smooth trunk of a cocoanut tree is no easy 
task. 

We camped that night among the trees by 
the side of the road a quarter of a mile further 
on. We had made twenty miles for the day, 
and were now on high ground near the base 
of the Cubitas mountains. The rise had been 
so very gradual that we had not noticed that 
we were ascending. The trunks of all the 
trees around us were stained for a short dis- 
tance from the ground with the red of the soil, 
caused, as we believed, by the wild hogs rub- 
bing up against them. Our supper of fried 
boniatos and bacon was skilfully cooked by 
Jeff Franklin, who used the hollow trunk of a 
royal palm, which had fallen and been split, 
for an oven. For drink we had cocoanut 
milk. By the vigorous use of Dave Murphy's 
machete we cleared away the underbrush so 



192 Pioneering in Cuba. 

that we could swing our hammocks among 
the small trees. Franklin had no hammock, 
but slept under a blanket on a rubber coat 
spread on the ground. The night was com- 
fortably warm and brilliantly clear. It was 
delightful to lie in our hammocks and gaze up 
through the trees at the beautiful star-lit sky. 
There were mosquitoes, of course, but they 
did not trouble us much, and we all slept 
well. 

We were up early the next morning, a per- 
fect day, and after eating a substantial break- 
fast proceeded on our journey. We felt little 
exhaustion from the long walk of the preced- 
ing day, but I was a sad cripple from sore 
feet. I had on a pair of Cuban shoes which 
were a little too short for me (although they 
were No. 40) and my toes were fearfully 
blistered and bruised. There was nothing to 
do, how r ever, but go forward as best I could, 
so I limped painfully along behind nry com- 
panions, keenly conscious that Josh Billings 
was a true philosopher when he said that 
" tite boots" made a man forget all his other 
troubles. 

A fraction of a mile beyond our camping 
place we discovered a well-kept shack 
ensconced in cosy grounds amid palms, fruit 



A Walking- Trip. 193 

trees, and flowering shrubs. It was one of 
the prettiest scenes we saw. We called for 
water, politely greeted the woman who served 
us with our best pronunciation of " buenos 
dias," and, murmuring our " gracias," went 
our way with some regrets at leaving so 
pleasant a spot. A mile or two further on we 
came to a distinct fork in the road. One way 
lay nearly straight ahead, the other bore off 
to the right. While we were debating which 
trail to take, a horseman fortunately came 
along, the first person we had seen on the 
road that day and the second since leaving 
Mercedes on the preceding forenoon. He 
told us to go to the right, and we were soon 
in the foothills of the mountains. 

It was here that we found a deserted shack 
behind which was a cleared space in the 
woods of several acres. On this little plan- 
tation grew bananas, cocoanuts, cassava, boni- 
atos, and other vegetables. As it was in the 
Cubitas mountains near this spot that the 
Cuban insurrectionists had what they called 
their independent civil government for some 
time prior to the intervention of the United 
States, and secreted their cattle and raised 
fruit and vegetables to supply food for the 
" Army of Liberation," we guessed that this 
13 



194 Pioneering in Cuba. 

might be one of the places then put under 
cultivation. It certainly had had very little 
recent care. 

After journeying past some chalk-white 
cliffs, which we examined with interest, we 
entered the mountain pass which we supposed 
would take us through the town or village of 
Cubitas, the one-time Cuban capital. The 
way was somewhat rough and rugged, but 
not very steep. The mountains were covered 
with trees and we had no extended view in 
any direction. All at once, at about 10:30 
a. m., we suddenly and unexpectedly emerged 
from the pass, when the shut-in forest view 
changed to a broad and sweeping prospect 
into the interior of Cuba. What we looked 
down upon was an immense savanna, stretch- 
ing twenty miles to the front, and perhaps 
more on either hand, broken in the distance 
on all sides by hills and lofty mountains. It 
was a beautiful sight, particularly for us who 
had been shut in by the forest most of the 
time for months. The savanna was dry, but 
in places showed bright green stretches that 
were restful to the eye. It was dotted with 
thousands of small palm trees, which were 
highly ornamental. We could not see Puerto 
Principe, nor did we catch sight of it until 



A Walking Trip. 195 

within three miles of the city. There was no 
town or village in sight, and not even a 
shack, occupied or unoccupied. The view 
embraced one vast plain, formerly used for 
grazing purposes, but now wholly neglected 
and deserted. We did not then know that 
we were to walk seventeen miles across this 
savanna before seeing a single habitation of 
any sort. 

We had seen nothing of the village of 
Cubitas, and concluded that we had taken 
the wrong pass. We were afterwards told 
that Cubitas consisted of a single shack which 
had been used as a canteen. Whether the 
Cuban government occupied this canteen, or 
one of the caves which are said to exist in 
these mountains, I cannot say. The revolu- 
tionary government, being always a movable 
affair, was never easy to locate. It was, 
however, secure from harm in these moun- 
tains. We noticed later that the natives 
seemed to regard all the scattered houses 
within a radius of half a dozen miles from 
this part of the mountains as forming Cubitas. 
The post-office must have been up a tree. 

After a brief rest on the south slope of the 
mountains, we resumed our march, a weari- 
some one for all of us and exceedingly pain- 



196 Pioneering in Cuba. 

ful to me with my disabled feet. They 
seemed even sorer after a halt. My ankles 
were now very lame from unnaturally favor- 
ing my pinched toes. The midday sun was 
hot, and we suffered a good deal from thirst. 
There were no longer any houses where we 
could procure water. We had not seen a 
stream of any sort in the last twenty miles. 
I staggered along as best I could, a straggler 
behind my companions. A little after noon 
we came suddenly upon two or three little 
water holes directly in our path. It seemed 
like an oasis in the desert. We could not 
see where the water came from nor where it 
went, but it was clear and good, and we were 
duly thankful. We ate dinner here under a 
small palm tree, and enjoyed a siesta for an 
hour. 

In the afternoon we met only one person, 
a Cuban produce pedler on horseback. He 
treated those who cared for liquor out of a 
big black bottle. That afternoon's tramp will 
linger long in our memories. I thought we 
should never get across that seemingly end- 
less savanna. At last, when it was near six 
o'clock, we reached an old deserted open 
shack which stood on the plain not far from 
the trail. Here we spent the night, cooking 



A Walking Trip. 197 

our supper and procuring in a near-by well 
tolerably good water, notwithstanding the 
dirty scum on top of it. We were within 
four miles of Puerto Principe, and my ears 
were delighted that evening with a sound 
which I had not heard in more than three 
months — the whistle of a locomotive. Our 
night was somewhat disturbed by rats, fleas, 
and mosquitoes, but we were too tired not to 
sleep a good part of it. The breeze across 
the savanna was gentle and soothing. 

The next morning we walked into the 
time-scarred city of Puerto Principe — that is, 
the others walked and I hobbled. If pos- 
sible, my feet were worse than ever. In 
the outskirts, our party divided, Franklin, 
Murphy, and Carpenter branching off to the 
left to go to the camp of the Eighth U. S. 
Cavalry two miles east of the city near the 
railroad track, and Crosby and I going di- 
rectly into the heart of the town in search of 
a hotel. We had a long walk through the 
narrow and roughly paved streets before we 
found one. There is no denying that we 
were a tough-looking pair of tramps. We 
were unshaven and none too clean. Our 
clothes were worn and frayed, and soiled 
with mud and dust. We were bent with the 



198 Pioneering in Cuba. 

packs upon our shoulders, and walked with 
very pronounced limps. Everywhere we 
were recognized as "Americanos," although 
it seemed to me we looked more like Italian 
organ-grinders. To the day of my death I 
shall never cease to be grateful to the people 
of Puerto Principe for the admirable courtesy 
and good manners exhibited to us. They 
did not stone nor jeer us ; they did not even 
openly stare at the odd spectacle we pre- 
sented. Even the children did not laugh at 
us, and the dogs kindly refrained from bark- 
ing at our heels^. At all times during our 
stay of several days we were treated with 
perfect courtesy and a respectful considera- 
tion which our personal appearance scarcely 
warranted and certainly did not invite. The 
Spaniards and Cubans seem to associate even 
the roughest dressed American with money 
and good-nature. The humbler children 
would gather about us, pleading, "Ameri- 
cano, gimme a centavo ! " while little tots 
of four years would say in good English 
and the sweetest of voices, " Good-by, my 
frien' ! " It was the soldiers who had taught 
them this. Their parents rarely spoke any 
English whatever. 

We stayed at the Gran Hotel, said by some 



A Walking Trip. 199 

to be the best in the city. It was none too 
good, but not bad as Cuban hotels run. The 
terms were moderate, $1.50 per day, for two 
meals and lodging. A third meal could not 
be obtained for love nor money. I bought 
mine at street stands or in a cafe. Not a 
word of English was spoken at this hotel. 

I cannot describe Puerto Principe at any 
length. It is an old Spanish city in architec- 
ture and customs, and might well have been 
transplanted from mediaeval Spain. As a 
matter of fact, it was moved here centuries 
ago from the north coast of Cuba, near the 
present site of Nuevitas. the change being 
made to escape the incursions of pirates. It 
has a population of about forty-seven thou- 
sand, and is the third largest city in Cuba, 
and the most populous inland town. Many 
of the residents are wealthy and aristocratic, 
and the people, generally speaking, are fine 
looking and very well dressed. I several 
times visited the chief plaza, which had 
lately taken the new name of Agramonte, 
and watched with interest the handsome 
men and beautiful senoritas who promenaded 
there. I was told that late in the afternoon 
and early in the evening the young people of 
the best families in the citv walked in the 



A Walking Trip. 201 

plaza. They were certainly elegantly dressed 
and most decorous in behavior. The plaza 
was very pretty with its royal palms and 
ornamental flower beds. It was flanked by 
one of the several ancient Catholic churches 
in the city. While in Puerto Principe I was 
in receipt of unexpected courtesies from Mr. 
C. Hugo Drake, the American lawyer al- 
luded to in an earlier chapter of this book. 

After spending four delightful days in 
Puerto Principe, I took the train to Las 
Minas, twenty miles to the eastward. There 
I joined my companions, who had preceded 
me by twenty-four hours. Here we boarded 
the private cane train of Bernabe Sanchez 
and rode to Senor Sanchez' great sugar mill 
at Senado, six miles away. Senor Sanchez 
has a pleasant residence here, surrounded by 
fruit trees and shrubs. We saw ripe straw- 
berries growing in his garden. Scores of 
Cuban shacks in the vicinity house his work- 
men and their families. We went all over 
his immense, well-appointed sugar mill, then 
in operation, and in the early afternoon rode 
on the flat cars of the cane train through his 
extensive plantation for nine miles, the land on 
either side of the track for all this distance 
being utilized for the growing of sugar cane. 



202 Pioneering in Cuba. 

The end of the track left us about eighteen 
miles from La Gloria. We set out to walk 
home, but late in the afternoon the party 
accidentally divided and both divisions got 
lost. Murphy and I spent an uncomfortable 
night in the thick, damp woods, and taking 
up the tramp early the next morning, found 
ourselves, two or three hours later, at the 
exact point near the end of Sanchez' planta- 
tion where we had begun our walk the after- 
noon before. We had walked about fifteen 
miles and got back to our starting point with- 
out realizing that we had deviated from the 
main trail. Stranger yet, the other division 
of the party had done exactly the same thing, 
but had reached this spot late the night before 
and was now half way to La Gloria. 

Murphy and I made a new start, and after 
getting off the track once or twice, finally 
reached the Maximo river, crossed it on a 
tree, and got into La Gloria at 5:30 that 
afternoon, nearly worn out and looking like 
wild men. I had had nothing to eat for forty- 
eight hours save two cookies, one cracker, 
and half a sweet potato. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

In and Around La Gloria. 

A very good Book that I wot of contains 
an Apocrypha. This will have no Apocry- 
pha, but I will here relate an incident which 
did not come under my personal observation, 
but which was told of by my ordinarily vera- 
cious friend, Colonel Maginniss. At one 
time during the winter, Colonel Maginniss 
and his assistants had for three days been 
searching for a company horse that was lost, 
when a man named Ramsden came to the 
colonel's tent and reported that there was a 
horse hanging in the woods not far away. 
The colonel and Mr. Jones went to the spot 
and found a large white horse, that had 
weighed twelve hundred pounds, dead in the 
thicket, hanging by the neck. No formal 
inquest was held, but it was the colonel's 
theory that this American-born horse could 
not live on Cuban grass, and had deliberately 
hanged himself. A somewhat similar case I 
was personally cognizant of. A sick horse 
was reported drowning in a shallow pond 



204 Pioneering in Cuba. 

near the camp. Colonel Maginniss went to 
the scene on a Cuban pony, with a dozen 
colonists, and after a hard struggle the horse 
was dragged one hundred yards away from 
the mud and water, and left on dry land. 
Early the next morning it was discovered 
that the horse had worked his way back into 
the pond and drowned himself. Was this a 
case of animal suicide? It may be said that 
none of the colonists ever resorted to this 
desperate expedient, even when the sugar 
gave out. 

Colonel Maginniss was " a master hand in 
sickness." An English woman who came to 
the colony was very ill, and blood poisoning 
set in. The colonel's experience as a family 
man was now of service. He had the woman 
removed to a large tent, attended her per- 
sonally and looked after the children, calling 
four or five times daily, and administering 
such remedies as he had. The woman re- 
covered, and gratefully expressed the belief 
that the colonel had saved her life. 

Near the end of April there was a sudden 
and surprising rise of water along Central 
avenue between La Gloria and the port. One 
afternoon Mr. Lowell and his men at work 
upon the road noticed that the water was ris- 



In and Around La Gloria. 205 

ing in the creeks and ditches along the way. 
This was a surprising discovery, inasmuch as 
there had been no rain of any account. The 
water continued to rise rapidly, and when the 
men left off work late in the afternoon it was 
several feet higher than it had been at noon. 
It came up steadily through the night, so that 
pedestrians to the port the next morning 
found the water even with the new road all 
along and over it where the creeks came in. 
Further down toward the port, the savanna 
was flooded in places to a depth of one or two 
feet. Among the pedestrians that morning 
were several colonists who were on their way 
home to the States, and who, singularly 
enough, were obliged to walk out of La 
Gloria through mud and water very much as 
they had walked in several months before, 
although between the two periods there had 
been for a long time a good dry road. 

It was that morning that we, in the camp, 
heard a peculiar rushing sound which we at 
first mistook for water sweeping through the 
woods. On going down the road to investi- 
gate, however, we found that the noise was 
the deafening chorus of millions of little frogs 
—some contended that they were tree toads — 
which had come in with the flood or with the 



206 Pioneering in Cuba. 

rain which fell in the night. Never before 
had I seen such a sight. The frogs were 
every where, on logs, stumps, in the water, 
and along the road ; bits of earth jutting out 
of the water would be covered with them. 
They were all of one color — as yellow as sul- 
phur — and appeared to be very unhappy. I 
saw large stumps so covered with these frogs, 
or toads, as to become pyramids of yellow. 
Whether frogs or toads, they seemed averse to 
getting wet and were all seeking dry places. 
I saw a snake about two feet long, who 
had filled himself up with them from head to 
tail, floating lazily on the surface of the water. 
No less than five of the yellowbacks had 
climbed up on his head and neck, and he had 
only energy enough left to clasp his jaws 
loosely upon one of them and then let go. 
The snake seemed nearly dead from over- 
eating. The frogs disappeared in a day or 
two as suddenly as they had come. 

At the time of this small-sized flood, a party 
of surveyors were camped upon the savanna 
near Central avenue and about a mile from 
the port. Their camp was high enough to 
escape the water, but they were pretty well 
surrounded by it. One of the men, finding 
deep water running in the road, went a-fish- 



In and Around La Gloria. 207 

ing there and boasted that he had caught fish 
in Central avenue ! The water soon subsided, 
and the generally accepted explanation of the 
sudden flood was that it had been caused by 
the overflow of the Maximo, and that there 
had been heavy rains, or a cloudburst, twelve 
or fifteen miles away. 

April was a warm month, but by no means 
an uncomfortable one. The lowest tempera- 
ture recorded was 67 ; the highest, 94 . The 
weather was delightful ; the breezes were 
fresh and fragrant ; flowers were blossoming 
everywhere ; and the honey bees of this 
incomparable bee country were happy and 
industrious. So, too, were the colonists. 
The work of the latter was well advanced by 
the first of May, or, at least, that of some of 
them. As an example of industry, D. Siefert 
is worthy of mention. Mr. Siefert hailed 
from British Columbia and came to La Gloria 
on the first Yarmouth. On the voyage down 
he was somewhat disturbed over the question 
of getting his deed, but once in La Gloria, he 
put his apprehensions behind him, secured 
his allotment of a five-acre plantation, in- 
dulged in no more vain questionings and 
waited for no further developments, but each 
morning shouldered his axe and attacked the 



In and Around La Gloria. 209 

trees on his land. He kept up the battle for 
months, rarely missing a day's work. The 
result was that by May 1, Mr. Siefert, alone 
and unaided, had cleared his five acres of 
timber land, burned it over, and was ready 
for planting. Other colonists worked hard 
and effectually in the forest, but this was the 
best single-handed performance that came 
under my notice. 

Another enterprising and highly intelligent 
colonist was Max Neuber of Philadelphia, 
who has been before alluded to as one of the 
teachers in the evening school. Mr. Neuber 
pushed the work upon his land, doing much 
of it himself. Early and late his friends 
would find him chopping, digging, and plant- 
ing. When he left for the States in April he 
had five boxes packed with the products of 
his plantation, such as lemons, limes, pota- 
toes, and specimens of mahogany and other 
valuable woods. 

A group of industrious workers, most of 
whom had earlier been attached to the survey 
corps, were in May located and well settled 
in a place which they called Mountain View. 
This was a partially open tract four or five 
miles west of La Gloria and about a mile 
from Mercedes. Here the young men pitched 
14 



2io Pioneering in Cuba. 

their tents and swung their hammocks, confi- 
dently claiming that they had the best spot in 
all the country round. From here the Cubi- 
tas mountains could be plainly seen ; hence 
the name of Mountain View. A person foU 
lowing the rough trail from La Gloria to 
Mercedes might have seen on a tree at the 
left, shortly before reaching the latter place, 
a shingle bearing the inscription, "Change 
Cars for Mountain View." If he should 
choose to take the narrow, rough, and 
crooked trail to the left through the woods, 
he would ere long come out into the open and 
probably see Smith Everett, formerly of Len- 
awee county, Michigan, lying in his ham- 
mock watching his banana trees grow. 

I have before mentioned the irregularity 
and infrequency of the mails. The remedy 
was slow in coming. The chief cause of the 
irregularity was The Sangjai, which, though 
designed to be an aid to navigation, was often 
a great hindrance to it. The Sangjai was a 
very narrow and very shallow channel, partly 
natural and partly artificial, through what 
had once been the Sabinal peninsula. The 
artificial and difficult , part of the channel 
known as The Sangjai was about half way 
between La Gloria and Nuevitas. It had to 



In and Around La Gloria. 211 

be used in following the short or "inside" 
water course. This was the route over which 
went our mail in a small sailboat. The 
Sangjai at one point was so shallow that it 
contained only a few inches of water at low 
tide and less than two feet when the tide was 
high. It was a hard place to get through at 
best; and many a passenger on craft which 
went 1 this way had to get out and walk, and 
help push the boat besides ! Boats always 
had to be pushed or poled through The 
Sangjai. If the winds permitted the sailboat 
to reach this aggravating channel at the right 
time, there was no great delay; but other- 
wise, the boat would be held up for ten or 
twelve hoursv This was altogether unpleas- 
ant, especially as the mosquitoes and jejines 
claimed The Sangjai (pronounced Sanghi, 
or corruptly, Shanghi) for their own. The 
mail, like everything else, had to await the 
will of the waters, or, perhaps I should say, 
the convenience of the moon. The Sangjai 
played a very important part in the early his- 
tory of La Gloria. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Colony at the End of the First 
Year. 

My pen must glide rapidly over the events 
of the summer and early fall. The sawmill, 
which had been so long delayed and so often 
promised as to become a standing joke in 
the colony, finally reached La Gloria from 
Nuevitas, via the port, on May 30. Nothing 
was more needed ; its non-arrival had de- 
layed both building operations and the clear- 
ing of land. A few weeks later the mill was 
in operation, to the great joy of the colonists. 
In June the construction of a pole tramway 
from La Gloria to a point on the bay between 
the port and the Palota landing was begun. 
This was completed on August 14, and trans- 
portation operations were at once inaugurated. 
The new landing place was named Newport. 
On July 16 the building of a substantial and 
permanent highway from La Gloria to the 
port was commenced under the supervision of 
Chief Engineer Kelly, and before October 1 
the work was well advanced. The chosen 
route was along Central avenue. 



At the End of the First Year. 213 

The colonists celebrated the Fourth of July 
with an appropriate entertainment. On July 
3 the colony witnessed a tragedy in the kill- 
ing of a youth named Eugene Head by a 
stone thrown by a young Spanish boy. The 
coroner's jury decided that young Head's 
death was accidental. Both boys were resi- 
dents of La Gloria. The fifth of July was 
marked by the death of a valued colonist, 
Mr. F. H. Bos worth, a veteran of the Civil 
War. Mr. Bosworth was seventy-one years 
old, and had not been in rugged health for a 
long time. He was an enterprising colonist, 
and performed a great deal of work for a 
man of his years and enfeebled physical 
condition. His wife, also a resident of La 
Gloria, survived him. The general health of 
the colony through the summer was excel- 
lent. There was but little rain, and the 
weather was delightful beyond all expecta- 
tion. The temperature ordinarily ranged 
from about 7 8° to 90 , and never exceeded 
94 . The colonists came to believe that the 
summer season was even' more agreeable 
than the winter. It was heartily voted that 
Cuba was a good all-the-y ear-round country. 

The end of the first year of the colony — 
reckoning from October 9, 1899, when the 



At the End of the First Year. 215 

surveyors began operations— saw much prog- 
ress toward extensive colonization, not in La 
Gloria alone, but also in the surrounding 
country. The Cuban Colonization Company r 
organized with Dr. W. P. Peirce of Hoopes- 
ton, 111., as president and treasurer, and 
W. G. Spiker of Cleveland, Ohio, as vice- 
president and general manager, had acquired 
two excellent tracts of land, known as 
Laguna Grande and Rincon Grande, to the 
eastward of the La Gloria property. These 
are being subdivided and sold to colonists in 
small holdings. In the Rincon Grande tract,, 
on the bay front, the city of Columbia is 
being laid out, and doubtless will soon be 
settled by thrifty and progressive colonists, 
from the United States. It is claimed that 
this is the exact spot where Columbus landed 
in 1492, and it certainly does answer well the 
historical description. Other colonists had 
purchased the Canasi tract, southwest of La 
Gloria and adjoining the Caridad property Y 
and Hon. Peter E. Park was said to have 
secured an option on the Palota tract. It is 
understood that these two tracts are to be- 
divided up and sold to colonists. The Cari- 
dad tract, adjoining La Gloria on the south, 
had passed into the hands, of Mr. O. N. 



216 Pioneering in Cuba. 

Lumbert of New York, and still other tracts 
in the neighborhood were being negotiated for 
b} T Americans. Judging from the progress 
of this first year in colonization, there will 
soon be more Americans in this region than 
Cubans. 

The nearest Cuban village to La Gloria 
is Guanaja (pronounced Wan-ah-ha) twelve 
miles to the northwest, and six or seven miles 
from Mercedes. Before the Ten Years' War 
Guanaja was a port of some importance, and 
the village is said to have embraced one hun- 
dred and eighty houses. But the town and 
surrounding country suffered severely in the 
long war, and somewhat in the later conflict. 
Now Guanaja consists of one rude wooden 
building, used as a store, and a dozen shacks 
stretched along the bay front close to the 
water, with a few scattered palm houses 
further back from the shore. The situation 
is rather picturesque, commanding a beautiful 
view across the brilliant-hued water to Cayo 
Romano, and the surrounding country is 
pleasant and might be made highly produc- 
tive. The La Gloria colonists sometimes pat- 
ronized the Guanaja store, and found the pro- 
prietor accommodating and reasonable in his 
prices. In the country between La Gloria 



At the End of the First Year. 217 

and Guanaja we would often meet members 
of the Rural Guard, in groups of two or three. 
They were fine-looking mounted Cubans, se- 
lected by the American military government 
from among the best of the late followers of 
Gomez, Garcia, and Maceo to patrol the 
country and preserve the peace. They fre- 
quently visited us at La Gloria, and made a 
favorable impression. 

The La Gloria colony at the close of its 
first year had several newly formed organiza- 
tions in a flourishing condition. Prominent 
among these was the La Gloria Colony Trans- 
portation Company, which owned and oper- 
ated the pole tramway to the bay. Its officers 
were: J. C. Kelly, president; D. E. Lowell, 
first vice-president and general manager ; W. 
A. Merrow, second vice-president ; M. A. 
Custer NefF, chief engineer ; R. G. Barner, 
secretary; William I. Gill, treasurer; H. W. 
O. Margary, counsel ; and John Latham, E. 
F. Rutherford, D. W. Clifton, R. H. Ford, 
W. M. Carson, J. A. Messier, directors. The 
La Gloria Colony Telephone Company, or- 
ganized to construct and operate a telephone 
line to the bay, was officered as follows : 
J. C. Kelly, president; F. E. Kezar, vice- 
president and general manager; J. R. P. de 



218 Pioneering in Cuba. 

les Derniers, secretary ; S. M. Van der Voort,. 
chief engineer and director ; J. A. Connell, 
director. The La Gloria Colony Cemetery 
Association had the following officers : J. C. 
Kelly, M. A. C. Neff, D. E. Lowell, trus- 
tees ; J. C. Kelly, president; H. W. O. Mar- 
gary, vice-president ; E. L. Ellis, treasurer ; 
A. B. Chambers, secretary; Rev. W. A. 
Nicholas, general manager ; F. E. Kezar, 
J. C. Francis, S. L. Benham, Mrs. W. A. 
Nicholas, Mrs. John Lind, directors. The 
Cuban Land and Steamship Company donated 
ten acres of land for a cemetery. The La 
Gloria Horticultural Society had about thirty 
members, with officers as follows : H. W. O. 
Margary, president ; A. W. Provo, vice-pres- 
ident ; R. G. Barner, secretary ; Smith Ever- 
ett, treasurer. The La Prima Literary Soci- 
ety also had something like thirty members, 
and these officers : H. W. O. Margary, chair- 
man ; A. W. Provo, vice-chairman ; R. H. 
Ford, secretary ; Smith Everett, treasurer. 
The two last named societies jointly pur- 
chased a town lot, and propose to erect at 
some future time a building for a hall, read- 
ing-room, etc. 

The colony's first anniversary found im- 
provements marching steadily, if not rapidly,. 



At the End of the First Year. 219 

on. The sawmill, already alluded to, was 
busily at work ; Olson's shingle mill was com- 
pleted ; the two-story frame building on Cen- 
tral avenue to be used as post-office, dwell- 
ing, etc., was done, as were numerous other 
wooden houses occupied as stores or resi- 
dences ; there were half a dozen well-stocked 
stores doing business, and several restaur- 
ants and bakeries. Many buildings were in 
process of construction, and much clearing 
and planting going on. Choice fruit trees 
were being imported, as well as cattle, mules, 
swine, and poultry. The colonists were sub- 
sisting in part upon vegetables and pineapples 
of their own raising, and looking confidently 
forward to exporting products of this charac- 
ter in the near future. 

Fruit growing was the most popular indus- 
try among the colonists, but there were those 
who were looking into the subjects of sugar, 
coffee, tobacco, cacao, rubber, lumber, cattle 
raising, etc. The outlook for all such enter- 
prises seemed highly promising. Urgent needs 
of La Gloria are a canning factory and an es- 
tablishment for the manufacture of furniture ; 
these industries should flourish from the start. 

The enthusiasm of the colonists was un- 
bounded ; they were rilled and thrilled with 



220 



Pioneering in Cuba. 



delight over their new home in the tropics. 
The climate was glorious, the air refreshing 
and soothing, the country picturesque and 
healthful, the soil fertile and productive. Not 
for a moment did they doubt that, after a few 
short years of slight hardship and trifling dep- 
rivations, a life of luxurious comfort lay before 
them. A fortune or a competence seemed 
certain to come to every man who would work 
and wait for it, and in all La Gloria there 
was hardly a person to be found who would 
willingly blot from his memory his interesting 
experiences while Pioneering in Cuba. 




Fortunes in Cuba 



A SHORT ROAD TO A COMPETENCY 
AND A LIFE AMID TROPICAL DE- 
LIGHTS FOR THOSE WHO ARE 
AWAKE TO THE PRESENT OPPOR- 
TUNITY. 



The Cuban Colonization Company 



OWNS and holds deeds for two large tracts of 
the best land in Cuba, situated on the north 
coast in the Province of Puerto Principe, the 
most fertile and healthful portion of the island. 
This region is being rapidly colonized by enter- 
prising Americans, who own and are develop- 
ing thousands of plantations in the immediate 
vicinity of our holdings. We are selling this 
valuable land in small tracts, from five to forty 
acres each, at a low price, payable in monthly installments. 
It has been practically demonstrated that this soil will pro- 
duce abundantly all kinds of tropical fruits, sugar cane, 
coffee, tobacco, cocoanuts, etc. 

The purchaser of land from us will have no 
taxes to pay for the first three years, and can have 
a warranty deed as soon as his land is paid for* 



A discount of 10 per cent, allowed from regular prices 
when full payment is made at time of purchase. 

An Insurance Policy. 

In case of the death of any purchaser we will issue a 
warranty deed to his or her estate without further payment. 

REMEMBER — That a 10-acre Orange Grove in Cuba, 
four years old, is worth ten thousand dollars, and will net you 
from three to six thousand dollars annually. 

REMEMBER— That in Cuba you can have fruits ripening 
every month in the year. 

REMEMBER— That what you would pay for winter 
clothing and fuel to keep you warm in the United States will 
keep up a home in Cuba, where the winter months are per- 
petual June. 

REMEMBER — That in our location are combined a de- 
lightful and healthful climate, pure and abundant water, and 
a rich and productive soil. ' 

Send for illustrated booklet and leaflets, giving informa- 
tion concerning prices, etc. 

GBBBN COLONIZATION COJHPflNY. 

MAIN OFFICE, 

ROOM 367, ARCADE, CLEVELAND, OHIO 

BRANCH OFFICE, - - HOOPESTON, ILL. 

... OFFICERS ... 

DR. W. P. PEIRCE, President and Treasurer. 

W. G. SPIKKR, Vice-President and General Manager. 
G. W. HANCHETT, Assistant Manager. 
W. P. PKIRCE, JR., Secretary. 

JAMES PEIRCE, Assistant Secretary. 



Pioneering in Cuba. 



A NARRATIVE OF THE SETTLEMENT OF LA 
GLORIA, THE FIRST AMERICAN COLONY IN 
CUBA, AND THE EARLY EXPERIENCES OF 
THE PIONEERS. 

By JAMES M. ADAMS, 

One of t v e Original Colonists. 



In one volume, 16 mo., illustrated with scenes in La Gloria. 

PRICE: Bound in Cloth, $1.00; 
Bound in Paper, 50 Cents. 



The book will be sent postpaid on receipt of 
price by the author, at North Weare, N. H., or 
by the Rumford Printing Co., Concord, N. H. 



AGENTS WANTED. 

Address the author. 



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